The Tribune

By Annelia Nixon

Tribune Business Reporter

anixon@tribunemedia.net

Bahamian trade unions are viewing upcoming meetings with Cabinet ministers and government negotiators in a bid to resolve their industrial grievances with cautious optimism.

Muriel Lightbourne, the Bahamas Nurses Union’s (BNU) president, said a meeting between her union and the Government is scheduled for next week with the union’s industrial agreement set to expire in October. Her union was one of four whose members were ordered back to work by a recent Supreme Court injunction obtained by the Davis administration.

“I know we have a meeting scheduled some time next week. I’m looking forward to some good things coming from it. But like I said, the actual date and time of the meeting I have not yet gotten as yet. I guess I’m just waiting to see. But whenever we do meet, I’m hoping that is very productive. That’s what I’m looking for. I’m just looking for something to be done, that’s all,” Ms Lightbourne said.

“You would have heard Mr [Obie] Ferguson say that our union was supposed to have met with the Prime Minister. However, I don’t know if it would be both of them [Mr Davis and Pia-Glover Rolle]. And so that’s why I’m not really certain. But I do know we’re supposed to be meeting with them.”

Karen Brown, president of the RM Bailey Park Association, said the area’s upkeep and maintenance is one of the top issues that vendors want addressed. She added that the Association wants a management contract for the park.

“Public Parks and Beaches Authority, they’re supposed to be responsible for our RM Bailey Park. But the only thing they do is collect revenue from us, and that’s it. You don’t see them. You don’t hear them. You might see them if somebody will come and say: ‘Oh, you all need to get off this park.’ But you don’t see them. They don’t come,” Ms Brown said.

“They make rules and regulations, and they don’t even send anybody out there to see if these rules and regulations are carried out. So here it is, my little association, or as the president, everything falls on me. So that’s why you heard in that meeting when we had the conclave that I was looking for a management contract. Because who better to run the park than the vendors? If you just collecting the money, they know they couldn’t care less.

“We have been a registered association with the Government, with the Department of Labour, since 2019,” Ms Brown said. “Our main challenges, they need to sit with us and they need to recognise us first. Then they need a protocol to see how the park is going to run. How you going to build your house out of straws if you don’t have a foundation? What’s going to happen? It’s going to collapse, right?

“So we need a foundation. We need to be recognised, and we need to sit to the table and plan or write this protocol to say… because if the PLP loses today and the FNM come in tomorrow, every five years we are faced with the same problem. It’s like you start over and over, over and over.

“And not just the PLP government. We had it with the FNM government, too. So for us, we need something in writing to say how it’s going to run. If that’s not the case, then give us a contract to manage the park. We were hoping for a contract. I don’t know if that could happen. I’m just saying if they want to not give us a contract, it’s fine. If they want to give us a contract, it’s fine. But all I’m saying is business can’t run as usual. The Prime Minister is the boss. So let me see what the boss say.”

Agreeing that Philip Davis KC has the power to resolve their issues, Deron Brooks, president of the Bahamas Customs, Immigration and Allied Workers Union, is joining Ms Brown in putting their unions’ respective outstanding matters in his hands. Mr Brooks added that meetings only do so much and he is now looking for action.

“I have no expectations. I will base things on when it’s done. And having a meeting doesn’t mean your issues will be resolved. Having a meeting just means that you dialogue, see, and having a meeting with persons who do not have delegated authority to resolve anything is a waste of time,” Mr Brooks said.

“The Prime Minister, any Prime Minister, can fix anything. They could do anything. They could fix anything. So if that’s who we’re going to meet with, and we go there with a view to resolving issues, then we’re all for that. But to sit in a meeting with somebody that does not have delegated authority or who’s going to tell you: ‘I can’t resolve this, I have to get back to you’. That doesn’t solve anything.

“So when we go there, we want to go there with the intent to get the issues resolved. You already know ahead of time what the issues are. Let’s come with some answers. We don’t need to go to successive meetings with no resolutions.”