The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

Sixty years ago, one of the coolest government jobs in town (literally) was at the ice house in Oakes Field, a stone’s throw from The Guardian’s media house.

This was in a time before electricity was a household commodity and the people of these islands looked forward to the refreshment provided by the crisp, crystal clear blocks of relief that the ice house provided.

An affable gentleman, the late Carl Albury, presided over the running of the ice house and he was meticulous, fair and unflappable. He treated everyone equally and patrons could rest assured that if they showed up they would get a little block of artic pleasure.

Mr. Albury knew that he was involved in a business whose time was short. He could see the electrification of his community. Indeed, his own wife, the late Agnes Albury, was at the vanguard of installing refrigeration in their own home. “We are going to work ourselves out of a job,” Albury would wryly inform his workers, adding quickly “and that’s a good thing for the country”.

It’s a pity and a crying shame that we don’t have more men of sterling character like Carl Albury on the front lines of our public-sector labour force. He could teach a class in the subject of statesmanship and responsible union leadership to men like Paul Maynard, boss of the Electrical Workers Union, who put on a disgraceful performance recently upon learning that technology was yielding enough results at Bahamas Power and Light that it was time for retrenchment of workers.

The union leader put the entire country on notice that his union will pull the plug if just one worker at the power company should lose so much as one hour’s pay, much less be caught up in the retrenchment.

Mr. Maynard set his sights on the Prime Minister, who was out of the country at the time, warning that he might return to find his capital city in darkness, courtesy of the union. This was a direct threat and does not auger well for the kind of amicable union/government relationship that we are going to need to dig ourselves out of the financial hole that we are in.

The new Bahamian management of BPL acquitted itself admirably and wisely did not take the bait that Mr. Maynard dangled which would have dragged the debate into the gutter.

Union management must wake up and realize that we are in 2018 smack dab in the middle of a technology and information revolution where efficiencies are driven by computerization not manpower.

We can all agree that the reason for setting up the power company was to provide uninterrupted power supply at the cheapest price possible. The government is taking steps towards this goal and it is accepted that one by-product will be the job redundancy as machinery and software replaces manpower and muscle.

No union boss wants to preside over job losses, but everyone realizes that while we can stand on the shore we cannot hold back the tide. The responsible thing for Mr. Maynard and others of his ilk and mindset to do is to get out in front of the revolution and bargain hard for fair retrenchment benefits for his workers.

Those let go should be fairly compensated to include offers of skills training to make them more marketable in other industries. It would not be unreasonable for BPL to assist retrenched workers to enroll at the University of the Bahamas or a technical institute to learn computer skills so that they can go back to BPL as independent contractors offering their newly-acquired computing knowledge.

Naturally, attrition and generous separation packages should be put in place before the retrenchment exercise is given the go-ahead, but come it must and it should be welcomed by all rate-paying customers who have been electrocuted by high rates and poor service.

Mr. Maynard and his cohorts will find no sympathy with consumers if they negotiate with threats and intimidation. It makes they look like bullies.

Losing power because the grid is old and inadequate is one thing; losing power because of union retribution is vexing and creates public resentment that the union can ill afford.

The management of BPL and the government must not be deterred by bullying and brutish behaviour. Stay the course, modernize, become more efficient, sustainable and environmentally friendly.

In addition to the conversion to natural gas from dirty diesel oil they must expand into solar and wind generation, all while improving distribution and a steady supply.

When the process of electrification of Nassau was commenced in the 1950s we had fuses that would often burn out, sometimes leading to power failures and even fires. It created much work for power company workers.

When the technology improved to breakers and trip wires, residents were able to go to the fuse and/or breaker box themselves and flip a switch to get the power back on. It was called advancement and nobody grumbled about job losses.

Today we have smart technology that can isolate faults within seconds and even systems that can repair themselves in real time. Workers went from four men on a truck with ladders and a trailer load of replacement hardware to today where a laptop or smartphone is all one technician needs to find and resolve problems.

Eventually homeowners will be able to troubleshoot their own problems and won’t need to grow old waiting on the telephone for a customer service rep from the power company to pick up the call.

Mr. Maynard needs to get with the programme. He should fight hard to get the best separation packages for his members and then come back to the negotiating table to put their ideas and energy to work for us, the Bahamian consumers.

His threats to cut the electricity supply won’t hurt the highfalutin and the powerful people he is angry at. They all have generators with state-of-the-art cut-over switches that kick in at the slightest hint of foolishness from the union.

THE GRADUATE

Nassau,

April 22, 2018.