The Tribune

By TANYA SMITH-CARTWRIGHT

tsmith-cartwright@tribunemedia.net

AFTER Bahamas Power and Light employees walked off the job last week in protest, government officials have held conciliatory talks with union officials, however, there is still a level of distrust with the company’s management.

Bahamas Electrical Workers Union President Kyle Wilson said yesterday Minister of Works and Deputy Prime Minister Desmond Bannister held a meeting with the union and executive management in an attempt to resolve the issues that led union members to walk off the job last Monday.

At the time, the union said the company had 14 days to address outstanding issues or face its wrath.

However, Mr Wilson said after that meeting on Thursday, a memo was sent to staff by a BPL official which listed 2020/2021 fiscal year promotions. This included Mr Wilson’s promotion to the position of plant mechanic.

Mr Wilson feels the memo was intentionally sent with his promotion in order to create dissent in his membership.

“Executive management, in my opinion, is still posturing arrogance and I am offended by their action on Thursday after I would have met with the DPM,” Mr Wilson said. “They would have come out with an ambiguous list of what they claimed to be recent promotions. Some of those promotions would have taken place over three years ago.

“They have my name on the promotion list talking about congratulations. They never sent me a letter of congratulations nor has anyone ever reached out to me to congratulate me. So why would you put my name on a list of promotions, the very day we met with the deputy prime minister? It was a nasty move to create division and tension amongst the membership.

“There is no middle ground, the HR Director and (BPL CEO Whitney) Heastie have to go,” he said.

Mr Wilson said Mr Bannister has set up a conciliatory process for all sides to hash out their grievances.

“The Prime Minister himself would have reached out to me on a conference call and gave me the assurance that he will see that the union concerns are met where they are reasonable,” he added.

He also said BPL’s chairman Donavan Moxey has yet to reach out to the union on the matter.

“Where is chairman Moxey in all of this?” he asked. “Why does it take the Deputy Prime Minister to reach out and the chairman has not reached out? The chairman has yet to reach out to the union leader which goes to show they are not serious about fixing the issues.

“They really think that the union is joking. . . the chairman nor any of his board members have yet to reach out to the president. Shame on them! Fourteen days soon up and if nothing happens with them then only Bannister himself can quell the storm to come.

“This union is backed by the TUC, the NCTU and CBTUC. That covers every union president in the country. There is no magic wand to fix it overnight. Some issues will go beyond the 14 days, but we want a commitment. If there is none you will see that from Abaco to Inagua, Mr Heastie and his (colleagues) will feel the wrath of the entire Bahamas Electrical Workers Union.”

Still upset over reports of BPL staff assigned to remote islands having to defecate in bushes as there are no facilities provided for them, the union president told of an option that he says was rebuffed by BPL management.

“There are no proper facilities on the remote islands,” he said. “We have a very smart foreman on one of the islands who was paying for staff to eat lunch at restaurants there so they could use the restrooms at those restaurants.

“One of the directors at BPL told the foreman of the corporation that BPL is not paying that restaurant bill and he should go pay for it himself. These things need to be reported, how cold, callous and mean they are. You would rather your staff use the bush than to pay for a meal for them to use the restroom?”

The union is upset about alleged poor working conditions on the Family Islands and unfair promotions and hiring practices. BPL has denied the claims.