The Tribune

By DANA SMITH

Tribune Staff Reporter

dsmith@tribunemedia.net

THE prediction is that Nicole Martin will be re-elected president of the Bahamas Hotel, Catering and Allied Workers Union, following the court-ordered Tuesday election.

Ms Martin faced off against David Beckford and Tyrone Knowles for the position. Although final results are not yet in, numbers indicate Ms Martin won in every polling station but Grand Bahama. Mr Beckford is predicted to win that station.

Around 4,000 members were eligible to vote in seven polling stations. Ms Martin said yesterday that a “good number” of those members voted on Tuesday.

“I’m happy that it’s over with and I feel vindicated by our members, based on everything that would have been said during the campaign,” she said. “I feel like I’m ready now to continue the work that we started.”

Ms Martin named contract negotiations and the recent firing of workers from the Wyndham Resort as “certainly top” on her list of items to address, going forward.

Ms Martin also down played reports of conflict within the union.

“I’ve never had a problem with my leadership, I’ve never had a problem with my team. There was opposition, as was the case in every election,” she said. “I think people magnify opposition as a union divided.”

However, Ms Martin that noted that she is prepared for any challenges that may come with her leadership.

“I’m just ready to continue the work and whatever comes, we’ll deal with it when it comes,” she said. “You never know what they’re going to come up with, so I’ve learned to just do what I have to do and take it as it comes.”

Earlier this year, Chief Justice Sir Michael Barnett ordered the hotel union to hold elections no later than February 28 after finding the organisation had breached its constitution by not holding elections last May.

Ms Martin had said at a press conference that the union will appeal that decision “in our effort to save the union money” and not because they oppose the order for new elections.