The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A trade union leader yesterday compared forcing Bahamian workers to take the COVID-19 vaccine as a condition of their continued employment to “taking us back to 1942” and the Burma Road riots.

Obie Ferguson, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) president, also likened the move to the industrial conditions that produced the 1958 general strike as he outlined plans to create a so-called “workers’ agenda” with input from all trade unions and the wider labour movement over the next seven days.

Some will likely regard Mr Ferguson’s comparisons with events of 1942 and 1958 as an exaggeration and inappropriate, especially since John Pinder, the director of labour, outlined the government’s position that employers cannot mandate employees receive the vaccine since there is no basis for this in law.

However, Mr Ferguson could not resist hitting out at Michael Scott QC, with whom he has clashed several times over the past three years while representing Bahamas Hotel Managerial Association (BHMA) members working at the Grand Lucayan.

Mr Scott both chairs that hotel’s Board and the Hotel Corporation, but Mr Ferguson did not distinguish between his government role and Sushi Rokkan, the Old Fort Bay Town Centre-based restaurant owned by the attorney and his wife. It was that business, and not the Grand Lucayan, that last week issued a note to staff warning their jobs and positions could be in jeopardy unless there is a valid medical reason why they should not take the COVID-19 vaccine.

Addressing a press conference, Mr Ferguson said: “The question of the vaccine: I heard the chairman of the Hotel Corporation, a government entity, made an announcement that he is going to make it a requirement for persons who want to continue to work....... it’s mandatory for them to take the vaccine. I just want to go on the record by stating categorically that is an illegal act.....

“No one... The constitution of The Bahamas does not permit for anyone to give that instruction, and have that kind of influence, with the physical situation of the individual. That’s a no-no. Disregard that because it doesn’t make sense.

“That will take us back to 1942, when the employer could tell you what to do, when to do it and how to do it no matter what the situation is. We are not going to go back to that, nor are we going back to 1958. We cannot go back to 1942 or pre-1942. We just cannot go back to 1958.”

Mr Scott last week said he had “smoothed out” any concerns at a staff meeting with Sushi Rokkan’s 30-40 workers, making it clear that “we’re not going to force” persons to take the COVID-19 vaccine if their doctor advises against it while warning that they should “find another job” if other excuses are invoked.

“The whole point is to save lives,” he added. “We had to set some kind of deadline. They understand it, and it’s clear what the regime is. People spend too much time downloading garbage from social media. That’s one reason why the vaccine roll-out has not been as efficient and effective as it could have been. The other one is that the Government does not have enough vaccines.”

The 1942 Burma Road riots, which Mr Ferguson is referring to, stemmed from workers’ demands that there be equal pay regardless of colour or nationality. The TUC chief, outlining a litany of union grievances and complaints yesterday, also argued that signed and registered industrial agreements “appear not to have any value” as employers either ignored or altered their terms at will.

“Prior to the unions, the middle class didn’t exist,” he argued. “Today, they’re trying to water that down and find all kinds of reasons not to support it.” Arguing that US president, Joe Biden, had encouraged Amazon workers to unionise, Mr Ferguson said: “In The Bahamas it’s a sin to be an officer or member of the union.

“If we go to the Labour Department we cannot even get a hearing.... Why would you send a matter to the Industrial Tribunal? It has no authority. It’s deliberately designed to frustrate the labour movement.”

Mr Ferguson also urged workers and trade union members to exploit their voting power at the ballot box as the general election looms, pointing out that those they elect will be serving for a likely five-year term.