The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A trade union leader yesterday hailed “the very good marriage” that presently exists between the Government and organised labour, adding: “We’re trying to get our country back to where it used to be.”

Obie Ferguson, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) president, told Tribune Business that the Davis administration had to-date “pretty much” exceeded expectations following its signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with workers when in Opposition.

Disclosing that trade unions were adopting a new approach to industrial agreement negotiations, where they focused on pay, benefits and overall financial terms and carried over non-controversial clauses from previous deals, he added that the Bahamas Customs, Immigration and Allied Workers Union had negotiated the deal signed on Tuesday in just two weeks.

“The technique we’re trying to implement is we’re going to deal with all relevant issues,” Mr Ferguson explained. “If an agreement has been good for the last 10-15 years, don’t renegotiate what’s accepted. Sloan Smith [head of the Customs and Immigration union] was able to complete his industrial agreement in less than two weeks.

“That’s the approach the TUC has decided upon. You go for things that actually need to be addressed, such as the money. We have changed our approach to industrial agreements, and the Government of The Bahamas has been receptive to it. That’s the way to negotiate, not get people excited about money, but get them focused on productivity. We’re trying to get our country back to where it used to be so everyone benefits from it, employer and employee.”

Mr Ferguson added that the Government has been living up to its MoU with the trade unions “to the letter. They are doing everything so far that they agreed to do. We have a very good marriage right now. The marriage is working. They have really complied with what they had agreed. We are all happy that they are living up to the expectations of the agreement.”

The TUC chief identified industrial agreements for the Bahamas Doctors Union and Consultant Physicians Staff Association, which represent the junior and senior doctors at Princess Margaret Hospital respectively, and deals for the General Workers Union with the Bahamas Agricultural and Industrial Corporation (BAIC) and Bahamas Technical and Vocational Institute (BTVI), as being among the remaining labour matters outstanding.

Earlier this year, the Davis administration signed new labour contracts with about five different unions, including the Bahamas Nurses Union, the Public Managers Union, the Bahamas Educators, Counsellors and Allied Workers Union and on Tuesday the Bahamas Teachers Union.

Mr Smith said on Tuesday of the Customs and Immigration deal: “This agreement has a number of things in it, primarily, we’re looking at the increase during a difficult time, the government is offering marginal increases, if I may say it that way. Though marginal, it is something that the membership accepted.

“In terms of increases, in the first year, we are looking at least one increment in terms of an increase, one increment, plus a normal increment. The second year, they are offering two increments, plus the normal increment, and then in the third year, one increment plus the nominal increment.”