The Tribune

By FARRAH JOHNSON

fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

DANIEL Thompson, president of the Union of Tertiary Educators of the Bahamas, claimed the union busting tactics carried out by employers in the country proves there is a general disregard by management for their workers.

Mr Thompson made the comment at the Water and Sewerage Corporation’s headquarters yesterday, where he stood in solidarity with members of the Bahamas Utilities Services and Allied Workers Union (BUWASU) at their demonstration.

“As we listen to the (number) of complaints and issues that my brother, Mr Woods, presented, it is indicative of what’s happening throughout the country when it relates to trade unionism,” he said.

“Indeed, the employers and the government at large seem to be engaged in a continual avoidance of coming to the table, delay tactics, disrespect for workers and other such issues and we hope through our affiliates to send that message loud and clear that we stand with our fellow trade unionists and we stand together in this fight.”

Mr Thompson also spoke about some of the issues his union is experiencing at the University of the Bahamas.

“At the university we have issues where our human resource department has admitted to creating posts and positions so as to avoid the unions,” he claimed.

“For example, they would advertise a position and attempt to sign a contract with the new hire without referencing the union or the industrial agreement.

“And then they’ll attempt to argue that this person was not hired according to the IA therefore they cannot be a member.”

According to Mr Thompson, the university has created new titles for jobs traditionally a part of the union’s industrial agreement.

As an example, he said, there was even an instance where the university attempted to define a nursing position in a different way so that school officials could argue that the new hire could not be a part of the union.

“That’s union busting,” he insisted. “Because a nurse is a nurse by any other means. You can call her a nurse technician, you can call her a nursing officer (but) whatever you call her she’s a nurse and once she provides the service of nursing, she falls under our industrial agreement.

“We have an examination officer,” he said. “What the university did was create a post called the director of exams doing the same basic thing that the examination officer does and they say ‘Oh they are no longer a UTEB member, they now fall under another industrial agreement.’

“These are union busting tactics (because) the employer cannot engage in discussion and changes to persons terms of employment without referencing the industrial agreement.”

Mr Thompson said if the university fails to respond to complaints in an appropriate manner, the union is prepared to file an industrial dispute over the matter.

Still, he said, the UTEB is willing to sit at the table and negotiate with the university.

“In December, we signed an agreement that was long overdue from 2017-2020,” he said.

“And the reason why we capped the agreement at that point was because as a result of the coming in of the UB Act 2016, there are certain provisions that that act mandates and so in order for us to get into the intricacies of that act to ensure that our industrial agreement is congruent and consistent with the act, there needs to be far more detailed negotiation.

“So what we did, we chose to conclude this current one under the old provisions so that we could engage our discussion.”