The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Government’s decision this week to permit 600 hotel workers to strike coincides with their employer’s move to launch the formal process to sell Freeport’s Grand Lucayan resort.

Obie Ferguson, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) president, told Tribune Business that the Ministry of Labour had issued the ‘certificate’, ratifying the Commonwealth Union of Hotel Services and Allied Workers’ vote to strike, on Monday.

He said the union’s members were poised to strike “any day now”, although he hinted that there was room for “intervention” by both employer and the Government.

The timing of the ‘strike vote’ certificate’s issuance is likely the last thing that Hutchison Whampoa, the Grand Lucayan’s owner, needs as it seeks to market the loss-making mega resort property to potential buyers.

Interested investors can be potentially deterred from acquiring a business by the threat of industrial unrest, let alone an actual strike, and the latest union developments mean the Grand Lucayan sales process may not get off to the best start.

Mr Ferguson, who is also the Commonwealth union’s attorney, confirmed to this newspaper that it had been aware of Hutchison Whampoa’s intentions to seek a buyer for the Grand Lucayan.

Given this plan, the TUC leader said he could not understand why the hotel did not want to resolve all outstanding issues with the union prior to a sale, otherwise any buyer would be confronted with “another set of problems”.

Mr Ferguson told Tribune Business that the Grand Lucayan’s current management/ownership were adopting “a very hard position” towards the Commonwealth union, and negotiations between the two sides had reached an “impasse”.

He added that the resort was seeking “to go back in excess of 20 years” in terms of the benefits that it wanted to strip from line workers, who are represented by the union.

“It’s been a bargaining impasse,” Mr Ferguson said. “The company’s position in writing to us is that they want to discontinue the employee aid fund.”

He explained that this fund provided financial assistance to Grand Lucayan workers when an emergency arose, and said the resort also wanted to “discontinue” the employee pension and ‘health and welfare’ funds.

The latter provides medical assistance to workers, and Mr Ferguson said of the Grand Lucayan’s stance: “You’re talking about going back in excess of 20 year on benefits.

“They seem to be taking a very hard position on taking away these benefits that the workers have enjoyed for the past 20 years, and it’s very difficult for trade unions leaders to take away fundamental benefits.

“This type of things are very fundamental to the average worker, and I can’t see how we can justify doing that.”

Mr Ferguson added that the Grand Lucayan was also seeking to cut the workforce’s Christmas bonus from two-and-a-half weeks’ pay to one week, plus a $75 voucher.

Outlining the course of the two sides’ negotiations, the TUC leader said the Commonwealth union effectively inherited an industrial agreement that had been negotiated by its predecessor, the Bahamas Hotel, Catering and Allied Workers Union (BHCAWU) in 2008.

The Commonwealth union replaced the BHCAWU as the bargaining agent for the Grand Lucayan’s line workers on June 18, 2013, and Mr Ferguson said the 2008 agreement had then only been partly implemented.

Noting that it had also not been registered in accordance with the Industrial Relations Act, the TUC leader said the Commonwealth union sought to reach a compromise with the Freeport-based resort.

“We suggested then that we were prepared to make a concession that all of the accruals to those benefits start from June 18, when this union became the bargaining agent,” Mr Ferguson said.

“We thought that was reasonable. The company has taken the position that they’re not prepared to entertain this. It’s ‘take it or leave it’.”

This led to the Commonwealth union holding a strike vote last month, with only one out of 205 voters against taking industrial action.

“We now have the certification. I just received the certificate from the Minister yesterday [Monday]. That allows us to go on strike,” the TUC leader told Tribune Business.

“It gives the union the right to strike, and protects the workers from being dismissed from employment.”

With industrial action seemingly imminent, and the Grand Lucayan sales process formally launched, Mr Ferguson said the union was surprised that the resort seemed unwilling to resolve the situation prior to finding a buyer.

“We were of the view that there should be some prior arrangement to ensure that if and when it’s sold, there will not be another set of problems,” he added.

“The new owners would then be guided by that. We will work with whoever the new owner happens to be, with a view to reaching an amicable arrangement that benefits all and sundry.”

Mr Ferguson argued that with the 2008 industrial agreement not registered, the terms of employment for the Grand Lucayan’s line workers were currently based - in law - on the 2001-202 industrial agreement, which was.

He indicated that any new owner would be faced with negotiations based on the 2008 agreement, and added: “That’s the reason we’re having difficulty understanding why they’re opposed to this. There’s no extra burden on the business.

“There’s a fundamental problem in that we cannot agree to reduce the benefits of the workers, but we’re prepared to negotiate in good faith.”