The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

WITH a new Minister of Tourism in office, the president of the Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union said workers’ rights in general are important issues that need to be addressed.

Darrin Woods said while much focus always seems to be geared towards investors, it must also be noted workers are just as valuable.

He was contacted after Chester Cooper was sworn in as Minister of Tourism, Investments and Aviation on Saturday.

This comes as some Atlantis staff are still furloughed, which Mr Woods estimated to be about 45 to 50 percent.

“While we believe that the investors are important, the workers are equally as important. . .people don’t come here to invest unless they’re sure that they could make a good return and we believe that the workers particularly in the hospitality industry have been disenfranchised.

“We believe that more care, more focused attention needs to be paid to the rights of the worker and also creating an environment that is conducive to workers to really perform at optimum,” he said yesterday.

He also called for those in the tourism sector to look at heads of agreements when they sign them and to make certain that the union is represented around the table, particularly when concessions are offered.

“In most instances, the concessions are tied to jobs,” Mr Woods said.

“They’ll say ‘we’ll give so much concessions…give so much jobs’. . .Any time there’s a downturn or something happens the jobs are the first to go away but the concessions remain the same and this is something that we would’ve mentioned to the former minister of labour in his capacity. We need to look at these concessions because when the jobs begin to go away the concessions should equally go away.”

Mr Woods said once Mr Cooper has settled into office, his union would like to have an audience with him to see what his plans are to revitalise the tourism industry.

“. . .We still have a lot of people from the hospitality (industry), not only hotel workers but the hospitality industry as a whole who are displaced in terms of they’re still home and so what is necessary how can the union from our standpoint help,” he said.

“We also want to give some insight on what we believe needs to happen to also protect people in the hospitality industry going forward. Pretty much it’s a wait and see.

“If the success that he’s had in a personal capacity, if he’s able to translate that into or take that with him into tourism and the other ministries that he has, we believe that he will do well,” Mr Woods told The Tribune.