The Tribune

By KEILE CAMPBELL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kcampbell@tribunemedia.net

ALEXANDER Burrows Jr took office as the new president of the Bahamas Public Services Union yesterday and told members unhappy with his election that "elections are won at the polls", a message from a man who twice challenged the union's election process himself.

He succeeds Kimsley Ferguson, who led the BPSU for nearly a decade.

Mr Burrows and his POWER (People Organizing With Effective Results) Team won nine of the union's ten executive posts in the September 30 election. The opposing slate won only the Northern Region post in Grand Bahama, where Mr Burrows said voting made the presidential contest close, although his team performed strongly in New Providence and the Family Islands.

"I've been on the other end of an election before," Mr Burrows said. "Two previous times we would've challenged the process. We cited irregularities during the process on two separate occasions."

He said it would be unusual for members of the outgoing administration to challenge an election process over which, according to him, they had direct oversight. He also defended the eligibility of the POWER Team's candidates, saying each was properly nominated in accordance with the union's constitution.

Mr Burrows, 48, a BPSU member for more than 20 years, said he received the certificate confirming the election results last Friday.

He said his immediate priorities include completing outstanding industrial agreements for the University of The Bahamas, the general public service and the Public Hospitals Authority.

Mr Burrows said the campaign showed how effective face-to-face engagement could be, and that his administration would take the same approach with members and with workers at agencies that had left the BPSU.

"We're not going to be bound in an office," he said.

He named the Airport Authority, Nassau Airport Development Company, Bahamas Agricultural and Industrial Corporation, Customs and Immigration among the agencies the union intends to approach. He said he hoped to "extend an olive branch" and encourage workers there to return to what he described as their home union, suggesting some may have left because they felt they were not being adequately represented.

Mr Burrows said Airport Authority employees supported his candidacy in large numbers in the previous BPSU election, when they were still represented by the union.

"We believe we can use that collateral in regaining their confidence in coming back home," he said.

He acknowledged Mr Ferguson's record of speaking out on issues affecting public servants and said his administration would build on that work.

Mr Burrows said the BPSU would partner with and commend the government when its actions deserved it, but would speak out against any attempt to disenfranchise its members.