The Tribune

By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS

Tribune Staff Reporter

lmunnings@tribunemedia.net

FACULTY of Bahamas Technical and Vocational Institute protested stalled industrial agreement negotiations yesterday.

Negotiations between the Union of Tertiary Educators of The Bahamas (UTEB) and BTVI have been ongoing for the past ten months.

The union, representing some 30 BTVI faculty members, pleaded with the government to intervene.

“The reason we’re here today is to plead to the government, yet again, for much-needed intervention,” said Mario Gay, a faculty member at BTVI.

“It has been two months since the conclusion of the negotiations and now it appears that BTVI management is refusing to sign the industrial agreement and are attempting to renegotiate items that have already been agreed to by both sides.

“This is not right, this is unfair, this is not a show of goodwill, and quite frankly, it suggests that the opposite side is stalling. We are making a plea to our government to intervene so that after this long ten months, the agreement will finally be signed this week. No more negotiations, just sign the agreement.”

During the peaceful protest on the institute’s outskirts yesterday, union members held signs and chanted: “no more stalling”.

While both parties reportedly agreed on most articles in the proposed agreement, they failed to see eye to eye on staff remuneration packages.

The union previously indicated that the current salary structure at BTVI is inadequate, and, as such, the group is pushing for staff members’ salaries to become similar to that of staff at the University of The Bahamas or other quasi-government agencies.

Secretary General of the National Congress of Trade Unions Bahamas (NCTUB) Daniel Thompson had previously said the agreement was expected to be signed during labour week, but that did not happen.

Mr Thompson, also the president of UTEB, had said the final draft was submitted, and that his union was awaiting a response from BTVI.

“Though the government, on the one hand, advocates and supports good industrial relations, we find that many of these individual organisations have their own culture, their own mindset, and their own objectives,” Mr Thompson previously said.