By EARYEL BOWLEG
Tribune Staff Reporter
ebowleg@tribunemedia.net
FORMER Labour Director John Pinder says he believes union leaders should apply more skills to getting matters resolved outside of industrial action that features, among other tactics, large numbers of workers calling in sick.
He said industrial action should be a very last resort, adding the government needed to look at the issue of strike certificate expirations.
His remarks came after more than 200 airport employees refused to report to work on Monday. Despite a court ruling ordering them to return to work, an estimated 80 percent of them did not show up for work on Tuesday.
“Union leaders have to find better ways of getting results than to some degree holding the general public hostage and in the case of the airport holding the businesses hostage,” the former unionist told The Tribune yesterday. “You leave a bad taste on the tourism product, but union leaders always strike when they think they could get the result they are looking for and so they gonna do it in the busy season and all that sort of thing.
“I believe union leaders should apply more skills to getting matters resolved rather than striking. Striking should be a very last resolve. It’s the very last thing you should do and when you strike you gotta make up your mind I ain’t going back to work until the cheque is written, which means your members ain’t calling in sick for one day or two and you telling them get one sick certificate.
“You (are) putting your members at risk - you can’t do it that way. So, they gotta be a little more tactful in their approach to getting matters resolved.”
He also said: “I said earlier to some other persons that I think the days of striking are really gone because no union is going to get its membership to strike for a long enough time to really get the results they’re looking for.
“They can’t afford to get cut for more than two to three days, but if you go back in history to get results unions have had to strike for like 20 days. So, the employer knows full well that after one, two, three days you are coming back to work.”
In some circles, there is the view that the state of industrial relations in the country was left in a poor state by the former Minnis administration.
While he did not shy away from giving them some blame, he said they were challenged by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I’m saying the previous government because of COVID they had to postpone a lot of things and so people may want to blame them and say well these were outstanding prior to the government, which is true. These matters were outstanding under the previous. As a matter of fact, some of these went back as far as the Christie administration because that airport I was president of the union and we couldn’t get that resolved. That went all the way back to the Christie administration.”
He told The Tribune there were some aspects of this epidsode that he would have handled differently.
“If I was dealing with it at this time, I think I would’ve handled it differently, but I think it’s important for the labour consultant that the government has. I think they need to apply a little more tactics if they’re able to get respect for the trade union leaders at this time.”
Mr Pinder also believes this government needs to hire more experienced persons to deal with the issues. He believes the persons government have in place do not have sufficient experience to get respect from the trade unions.
Meanwhile, the former 2021 election candidate highlighted the issue of strike certificates’ timeframes.
“The government needs to put, to cause there to be an amendment to the Industrial Agreement Act to put a timeframe on a strike certificate. Strike certificates in this country have no end. When I say that, they don’t expire until you utilise it,” Mr Pinder said.
Comments
JokeyJack 1 year, 9 months ago
Years ago, I used to say the solution was condoms. But if we don't breed like rabbits and have 10 children that are so desperate for work that they are willing to work for slave wages, then the government just lets slaves come in from Haiti to replace us. The same in happening in Europe and the USA.
Corporations wants slaves. If "developed" countries won't produce them, then they order the governments to allow them in without an concern for immigration law. I've heard that in UK and Canada the governments put such people up in hotels until they can be placed wherever they are "needed".
Of course, the media is busy assuring people that "The Great Replacement Theory" is a conspiracy. You don't have to believe or not believe the media. Just open your eyes and look for yourself. How many unemployed youth (over 18) do you have living at home with you? Simple question. Simple answer. Simple reason.
bobby2 1 year, 9 months ago
The problem is really two fold. As much as Union's need to find a better ways & skills, so do the employers. Union leaders can have all the skills in the World, howver, if the employer refuses to honour it's agreements or refuses to negotiate an Agreement in a timely manner, Unions have no other recourse except to with hold their Labour.
sheeprunner12 1 year, 9 months ago
Agree ....... What else can the unions do when the biggest 242 employer (Government) deliberately and callously violates every CBA it signs with the various unions representing its various Departments from Education to Health to Customs or the Prison?????
The Government is now using the Labour operatives and the Police to block unions from operating its legal right to use its collective power of agitating for its members.
So, who or what else can the unions do???
JokeyJack 1 year, 9 months ago
True - but also employers know that there are only so many jobs out there for so many people - so they can treat people like dogs. You often hear the term "team player" - that just mean that in that job you are going to be a gopher who does whatever is thrown at you. Almost ALL jobs today have no job description - or if they do - it includes the phrase "and other assignments." Basically everyone's job is exactly the same - which is to do exactly what you are told exactly when you are told to do it.
Of course this leads to horrible job morale and terrible work ethic. Employers think they are saving money by paying people nothing and treating them like dogs - but all they do is upsetting customers and losing business. Most people in Bahamas ordering online now instead of going in (insert name of a business here) and either getting no service - or being served by a robot who is just saying whatever he thinks you want to hear so that you don't report him/her to his/her boss and get them in trouble. They truly have no interest in serving you and have ZERO interest in being employed by that boss except they got to pay their rent.
All of this LOST productivity - due to our old slave mentality just being applied by blacks against blacks instead - is transformed into REAL money and production being lost - and it all comes out in the wash - such that nobody has any real money or any real life. This is a downward spiral straight to HELL. Or did we already pass there? LOL.
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