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Bahamas Mail Comes to a Screeching Halt

Workers at the main Post Office building on West Hill Street walked off the job and went on strike yesterday, claiming that working consitions in the buiding are “unbearable”

What’s more “unbearable” is that it takes two weeks for a letter to get from downtown to an offcie on West Bay Street.

In all fairness, however, the air-conditioning in the building has been on the fritz for months.

Employees had been working only until 2:30pm as it would get too hot in the building to work in there after that time.

But now, with cooler weather, management decided that the conditions were acceptable for the workers to stay and do their jobs.

Apparently the minister and the permanent secretary visited the area Tuesday, and as far as they are concerned, it was cool enough for workers to stay until 5:00pm.

Some of the workers do not like that idea.  They prefer to work until 2:30pm… who wouldn’t?

Predictably, Bahamas Public Service Union (BPSU) President John Pinder threw his support behind the workers.

“I am not going to encourage them to be in there for eight hours until that system is repaired,” Pinder said.

Meanwhile, it is not understood how the air-conditioning in such an important government building can be broken for so long.

That’s not the only problem in the building either.

Earlier in the week, Ministry of Public Works employees were brought in to address the water supply problem. As a result, employees in the Office of the Attorney General were allowed to leave early, as well as those in the Ministry of Labour and Social Development.

Another problem is the mold in the building, a health hazard for anyone working there.

Post Office employees have been putting up with poor working conditions for a long time.

Government needs to fix the problems in the building and get these employees back to work.

Then, they need to “downsize” the postal operation and get rid of slack employees so Bahamians can get their mail in a timely manner.

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