The Tribune

ALEXANDER Thompson, a prominent figure in the Bahamian labour movement, died yesterday morning. He was 80.

Mr Thompson was born in Stanyard Creek, Andros in 1937, and as a little boy, worked with the mail boat collecting the mailbag and delivering groceries. Always seeking ways to assist, he performed odd jobs around the church and the neighbourhood.

He attended St Faith Primary School in Fresh Creek and was taught by Edith B Riley. He worked at the church after school hours and also worked as a water boy, cleaning the mission house and as a sexton of the church, ringing the bell.

When the Lighthouse Club in Fresh Creek opened its doors for business in 1954, Mr Thompson was hired as a bellboy and his duties included going to the airport to unload the plane as the guests arrived. He was responsible for taking the guests and their baggage to the car, driving them to the hotel and delivering their baggage to the guest rooms.

A devoted Methodist, he moved to Nassau at 21 and was married a year later.

After defeat in 1960, he ran again the following year for the Trustee seat in the Hotel Union and was successful, holding the seat until 1967. That year, he ran for the position of Treasurer, which he won and held the seat until 1982, the longest serving Treasurer in the union’s history.

In 1965, he studied bartending at the Hotel Training School. Over the years, he attended various Conferences and International Labour Organisation conventions on the distribution of gratuities, labour laws and industrial relations in Switzerland, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and Antigua and Barbuda.

In 1982, he ran for the position of Vice President of the Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union, a seat that he won and held until 2002. During this time he, along with a team of others was able to negotiate a range of benefits including a five-day work week, 15 per cent gratuity, overtime, maternity leave and seminars for shop stewards.

Mr Thompson was also the Catering and Food & Beverage Manager for the Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union during his tenure as Vice President. Additionally, in 1987, he attended the Trade Union Institute in Israel where he studied industrial relations.

Although retired since 2002, Mr Thompson was often called upon for advice on labour matters and was esteemed as a labour advocate. Funeral arrangements are being made.