The Tribune

• TUC boss promises people’s ‘interest’ paramount

• But labour movement ‘under pressure to take action’

• Middle class ‘evaporates’; worker relations ‘worst ever’

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Trade unions will “not create hardship for the Bahamian people” if they are “forced” to take industrial action over their multiple workplace grievances, a prominent leader pledged yesterday.

Obie Ferguson, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) president, told Tribune Business “the interests of the public” will be paramount in whatever the labour movement ultimately decides to do to “change the road map” on Bahamian industrial relations.

Describing labour relations as “the worst I would have ever seen it”, with numerous unions unable to resolve outstanding matters with government and private sector employers, he said the TUC and its affiliates were determined not to lose the support they are currently receiving from “a substantial portion” of Bahamians.

Warning that the Bahamian middle class is “evaporating” due to ever-increasing economic and social pressures, Mr Ferguson said the trade union movement has a responsibility to counter this and what he branded as the growing gap between rich and poor, with “the difference between the ‘have’s’ and ‘have not’s’ becoming larger every year”.

He also dismissed suggestions by John Pinder, director of labour, that the latest bout of union-related unrest was motivated by a desire to use the upcoming general election and union votes as leverage in negotiations with the government in a bid to ensure their demands are met.

Asserting that the union movement is “not trying to destabilise” the government, the TUC chief also rejected Mr Pinder’s argument that the state of workplace relations “isn’t as serious as it appears to be”.

Asked what Bahamians can expect to see if outstanding industrial matters are not resolved to the unions’ satisfaction, Mr Ferguson told his newspaper that leaderships were coming under growing pressure from their memberships to act and said: “You saw what happened at Bahamas Power & Light (BPL).

“I said before that there’s a possibility you will see them take a different approach. We have to do something. We can’t sit here and twiddle our thumbs and do nothing. Our members are asking us to act and do something.”

However, Mr Ferguson promised that any industrial action will be designed to avoid harming the Bahamian people in an environment where most businesses and workers are still trying to rebound from the economic devastation inflicted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I’m having discussions with my union colleagues to determine what is the most appropriate thing to do without creating hardship on the Bahamian people,” he told Tribune Business. “That’s the discussion I’ve been having today and the last two weeks. 

“We are trying to find the most palatable way of doing something that changes the road map as opposed to doing something without having regard for the interests of the Bahamian public, especially at this point in time. The conversation is that whatever we decide to do, we have to do it with the interests of the Bahamian people in mind.

“We want the public to support what we’re doing, and right now a substantial portion of the workers and Bahamian people support the position we have embarked on. We don’t want to interfere with that position of empathy and trust. We have contemplated doing something, but have not finalised what it’s going to be.”

Many observer will argue that union and workplace-related unrest is the last thing The Bahamas needs, especially as its Dorian and COVID-19 battered economy is just starting to see the first glimpse of a tourism revival and the return of many furloughed staff to work. 

Acknowledging this, Mr Ferguson said: “We’re going to do the best we can to ensure the country comes out of the economic and COVID-19 situation that we’re in. But if it continues to go the way it’s going we’ll be forced to do something. The members are demanding it.....

“The issues of the people must be recognised legally and socially. The way we’re going we’re concerned about the middle class. The middle class looks like it’s being evaporated. The trade unions have played a major role in establishing the middle class in this country, and the way it’s going now creates some difficulty as to whether the middle class does or does not exist. The difference between the have’s and have not’s is becoming larger and larger.”

Dismissing suggestions that trade unions are exploiting the upcoming general election to “turn up the fire”, Mr Ferguson added: “What the unions are doing now is raising concerns on legitimate issues affecting the workers, and the failure of government corporations ostensibly - and some of the private sector - to sit down and negotiate with the unions.

“We’ve asked for the Industrial Tribunal to be made the industrial side of the Supreme Court, which will affect 220,000 workers.” He said unions with outstanding grievances ranged from the air traffic controllers to the Public Managers Union, those in the hotel and electricity industries, and the two unions representing doctors in the public healthcare sector.

“It’s bad; it’s very, very bad,” Mr Ferguson said of industrial relations in The Bahamas. “It’s the worst I would have ever seen it. It’s really bad. The morale of workers is very low, and trade union leaders have been made to look impotent because the system is not working.”

Noting that Mr Pinder is the FNM’s likely Fox Hill candidate in the upcoming general elections, the TUC president retorted: “I can assure you that from where I sit that the unions are complaining on legitimate issues. It’s not political at all. We don’t think in terms of trying to destabilise the Government. That would not be proper

“It is very serious because the Labour Department has a function to act as a facilitator and mediator with respect to all labour issues. I had two calls today where unions are trying to get conciliation meetings at the Labour Department. All we’re trying do is present the workers’ case, and have it heard in a reasonable time. Every matter at the Labour Department should be heard within seven days, but that is not happening.”