The Tribune

By Neil Hartnell

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A trade union leader yesterday warned that industrial “mayhem” via a general strike will result unless employers stop attacking worker rights that have taken decades to build.

Bernard Evans, the National Congress of Trade Unions of The Bahamas (NCTUB) president, told Tribune Business that this nation’s industrial relations climate was currently “a ticking timebomb” amid fears that long-established benefits and protections are under threat.

Affirming that the umbrella union body stood “100 percent” behind its hotel union affiliate ahead of this Thursday’s strike vote, Mr Evans said The Bahamas was “headed in the direction of a general strike” with workers withdrawing their labour en masse unless multiple disputes and grievances were swiftly resolved.

He added that the hotel industry was seemingly trying to “roll back and cut” worker benefits and salaries at a time when The Bahamas was rated the fourth most expensive country in the world, with society having been hit by two VAT increases within five years.

Warning that “something has to give”, Mr Evans said the labour movement felt it was being locked out of “proper and meaningful dialogue” with the government and employers over its concerns while workers bore the brunt of continuous cost of living increases.

“We’re very concerned we’re heading for mayhem,” he told Tribune Business. “As human beings we have a right to protect ourselves for survival, and once we see those protections being torn down our only course is to retaliate in a manner we don’t want to do...

“When anybody is asking for a strike vote - the Water & Sewerage Corporation unions have got strike votes, the hotel workers are asking for a strike vote - when you see all those unions asking for a strike vote only one thing can happen. A general strike.

“We don’t want that to happen, but it’s unfortunately headed in that direction. The workers will withdraw their labour,” Mr Evans continued. “If there’s one message to take from this interview, this is the inevitable we see happening.

“We don’t want it to happen. This is the last resort. But, if these matters are not resolved, it’s unfortunate but that’s the end result.”

Mr Evans’ comments add to the sense of a rapidly deteriorating Bahamian industrial relations climate in both the public and private sectors, especially following the hotel union’s burning of an employer proposal it considered inflammatory in terms of loss of benefits and workers’ rights roll-backs.

With workplace tensions now extending beyond the Government and public sector to include The Bahamas’ largest industry and private sector employer, the Minnis administration and its Department of Labour are facing the prospect of a long, hot summer unless they can quickly cool passions and address grievances.

John Pinder, director of labour, yesterday indicated that it was close to achieving that in the dispute between the Water & Sewerage Corporation and its line staff union (see article on Page 3B). He said the only outstanding issue was the return of the union’s president, Dwayne Woods, to work, after the Corporation stopped paying him his full salary until he does so.

And, while National Insurance Board (NIB) workers ended their “sick-out” and returned to work yesterday, new union-related disputes appear to be occurring as fast as existing ones are solved.

Mr Evans said fears that employers are attempting to “erode” long-established worker rights that were fought for, and won, decades ago, together with a perceived “lack of respect” being shown towards labour and its union representatives, were the core issues behind the current state of workplace relations. 

“We 100 percent support the hotel workers and their union. We in the NCTUB definitely support president Darren Woods and his executive team, and their efforts to seek a strike vote this Thursday,” he told Tribune Business.

“There would seem to be an ongoing trend that labour is under attack. All the benefits negotiated decades ago seem to be under attack, and attempts being made to have them reversed.”

Also pledging the NCTUB’s support for the NIB workers and their Union of Public Officers, Mr Evans said the umbrella union body will be there in full force whenever they [and the hotel union] call on us”.

He suggested that the hotel industry’s opening offer, which sought to eliminate the automatic 15 percent gratuity for tipped employees and make Christmas bonuses and ham/turkey discretionary rather than guaranteed, was counterproductive for worker morale and productivity in the vital tourism industry.

“Given what the tourism industry means for the country, the service the workers provide goes hand-in-hand with the facilities the hotels provide,” Mr Evans said. “A happy worker gives good service, so I can’t see how management expects workers to give good service when they’re trying to roll back the income for them and their families.

“I recently saw a report that said The Bahamas was the fourth most expensive place in the world to live. The cost of living is increasing, and they want to roll back the amount of money you make to confront the increase in the cost of living.

“Something has to give. You can’t continue like that. We hope cool heads prevail, the Government intervenes and allows the workers to maintain the benefits they have and get a modest increase.”

Mr Evans then referred to “continuous legislation to erode workers protections”, although he did not cite any new or proposed Bahamian laws that will have this effect when pressed by Tribune Business to do so. He instead referred to The Bahamas’ planned World Trade Organisation (WTO) accession as something that would be detrimental to workers.

The NCTUB chief also blamed unions and workers’ “trivial participation” in dialogue and negotiations, including with foreign investors coming into The Bahamas, as another factor driving the strained industrial relations climate.

“We hope in the remainder of this year that they open meaningful dialogue and show respect for workers and their representatives,” Mr Evans said of the Government and employers.

He added that unions and organised labour had been further unnerved by the Court of Appeal’s ruling in the Morton Salt dispute, in which it ruled that an industrial agreement was an employment contract and had to be assessed in accordance with common law principles.

Mr Evans explained that the ruling, which the Morton Salt line staff union hopes to appeal to the Privy Council, threatens and undermines the very rationale for collective bargaining agreements between union and employer. 

Describing this as a benefit multiple unions had enjoyed for years, he told Tribune Business: “We feel under attack on everything we have fought for. It’s bad. We see ourselves as under threat; real threat.

“We hear the minister of labour say he’s with us, and I believe him, but he’s limited in his powers. It’s ironic that as we near Labour Day we se a bunch of problems with each union. They will have placards saying what is going on. It’s a ticking time bomb. It’s unfortunate, but labour is on the verge of a ticking time bomb.”