The Tribune

By Fay Simmons

Tribune Business Reporter

jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

A former Atlantis chief shop steward, whose firing last year triggered a formal trade dispute, has elected not to return to the resort and is now employed full-time with the hotel union.

Darrin Woods, the Bahamas Hotel, Catering and Allied Workers Union’s (BHCAWU) president, said the union had been prepared to negotiate Princess Adderley’s reinstatement with the Paradise Island mega resort by the ex-Royal Towers chief shop steward had chosen to go in a different direction.

He said: “We appealed the matter at the highest level of the company, and the company took a particular position, which we did not agree with.

“We were negotiating back and forth for her reinstatement and, of course, they took a particular position again, and when it all boiled down, it came to [her] making a decision that she thought was in her best interest. One of the things she said succinctly was, you know, I’m not certain that I would like to go back to a place where it seems as if I’m not wanted.”

Ms Adderley was terminated last year because of alleged insubordination and incitement of a work stoppage, which Atlantis alleged violated the industrial agreement with the BHCAWU. She was initially suspended after workers objected to paying for new independence uniform shirts because their demands for a new industrial agreement had not been met.

Mr Woods at the time said Ms Adderley was not present during the incident, but was held responsible when employees stopped working. The union argued that Atlantis management had no evidence to support the termination, and subsequently filed a trade dispute with the Department of Labour.

The BHCAWU chief on Friday maintained that the union was more concerned with Ms Adderley’s best interests than the outcome of the trade dispute, and decided to offer her a position as a junior officer instead.

He said: “She made a decision, and we supported her decision, but one of the things we maintain throughout this whole ordeal is that no matter what happened in this situation, no matter what the outcome was, the union was going to ensure that her best interest long-term would have been looked after.

“So we made a decision as an organisation… that we would bring her on as an organiser for the organisation, which is a step above a chief shop steward, a junior officer of the of the union. She is now employed with the union on a full-time basis and she’d still be doing the same thing, representing people wherever she is assigned.

“She’s graciously accepted the offer and she is here with us today, with the union…and she’s excited.”