The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

Bahamas Power & Light’s (BPL) struggles to keep the power on are the result of “legacy issues” that cannot be solved “overnight”, a trade union leader asserted yesterday.

Kyle Wilson, the Bahamas Electrical Workers Union’s (BEWU) president, said recent outages - both localised and those that have been more widespread - could not be blamed on the Davis administration or its recently-appointed Board whose members are only starting to become familiar with the cash-strapped utility’s woes.

“What we are facing now is a result of issues from the past that these persons are now inheriting, and it doesn’t just happen overnight,” he added, warning that BPL’s challenges will continue because the “people who have the knowledge are not the ones being consulted”. Mr Wilson said BPL continues to make decisions without considering the realities that workers are confronted with on the ground.

He added: “You’re not asking them what is needed, or what they see in the transmission system and the generation system. They’re just going into boardrooms, just the figureheads, and everybody is trying to figure out what is going on but they’re not talking to the people on the ground who really have the knowledge.

“I would have prophesised what was going to happen today. But no one was taking the union seriously, and this is why you must take the union seriously and the union leaders seriously. We are not just union leaders; we are workers on the ground. We can see what’s happening.”

BPL’s unplanned power outages have increased over the past three months, some of which have been prolonged with no explanation given. Voicing hope that Bahamians will “not” have to endure a dark, hot summer, Mr Wilson added: “I’ve been assured that what needs to be done will be done on the generation end to ensure that it doesn’t happen.”

He said “there are so many issues that can cause a power outages”, with underground cables prone to flood damage and poles vulnerable to lightning strikes, while human error is also a factor.

“You might have issues with the transmission and distribution, and sometimes you have people that hit poles and you might not even know that, just two blocks away from you, a person ran into a pole,” Mr Wilson said. “Then an emergency crew has to get out and extract that broken pole, plant a new one and run the wires.”

Mr Wilson said the BEWU is giving the new Board time to settle in before it begins agitating for action to address its grievances. Chief among these concerns are the BEWU members’ pension and medical matters, in addition to the 12-hour shift for shift workers.