Officials of the Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union (BHCAWU) over the years have demonstrated an amazing degree of “chutzpah” in negotiations with hotels in The Bahamas, so it is not surprising that the union, with an election due to take place next May, has decided to flex its muscles with the owners of several hotel properties in the country.
Using what has become the union’s trademark modus operandi, BHCAWU Secretary General Leo Douglas, according to published reports, has accused Kerzner International, the country’s second largest employer, with being “most disrespectful” to the union for refusing to meet to resolve a number of outstanding labour disputes.
Mr. Douglas, of course, has more than 6,500 reasons to be concerned. Those more than 6,500 reasons are the number of employees who work for Kerzner International’s mega resort of Atlantis and other hotel properties on Paradise. If only 5,000 of them are members of the union, this means that the union collects $50,000 in dues weekly from Kerzner International, based on the fact that union members pay $10 a week dues.
Mr. Douglas reportedly has said that Kerzner can “expect a very cold winter” if it continues to ignore the industrial agreement. Threats of this nature were common with the management of the now-closed Royal Oasis Resort and Casino in Freeport. When the hotel was forced to close because of extensive damage caused by the hurricanes, more than 1,000 members of the union found themselves without jobs, and despite appeals to the union for financial assistance, none was forthcoming. According to the union’s constitution, they are now no longer members of the union because they have not paid dues for more than three months.
In addition to Kerzner International, the union also is playing hard ball with the Coral Beach Hotel, a much smaller property in Freeport, which recently laid off 15 employees. Tiffany Dennison, the attorney for the hotel, said the layoffs were necessary because the hotel simply does not have the finances at this time to continue in full operation.
But Lloyd Cooper, the BHCAWU’s Freeport-based second vice president, charged that “union busting” was the motive for the dismissal, and in his characteristic style described the layoffs as the “most blatant, discriminating act he has ever encountered.”
Attorney Dennison responded sharply to that charge by declaring that if the matter was “not resolved, and the harassment and slander continues, Coral Beach will simply close, and the rest of the people will be out of a job.”
Kerzner International, of course, is too huge an operation and too important to the overall economy of The Bahamas to shut down its operations because of pressure from the union; nonetheless, those employees of Kerzner who are members of the union ought to send a strong message to BHCAWU executives that rather than put their jobs in jeopardy, they should find another way to protect the inflated salaries they receive.
Source: The Freeport News
