A reported effort at conciliation within the distressed Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union on Monday appeared to have failed, leaving the leader of the unionﾒs predominant “I For Justice” administration dismissing scathing criticisms leveled by shop stewards at various hotel properties.
That effort came in the form of a meeting with the unionﾒs chief shop stewards, called by Justice team head Roy Colebrooke, whose grip on the presidency of the hotel union is still in question. Mr. Colebrooke and incumbent hotel union president Pat Bain tied for the top position in elections that were held in May.
Despite reported assurances of cooperation, a group of those stewards professing concern for the union held a press conference Monday night to air their concerns. Mr. Colebrooke on Tuesday dismissed the charges, which included claims that the new administrationﾒs inexperience was crippling the union.
According to Mr. Colebrooke, those shop stewards are suffering from sour grapes, and are not speaking the truth.
“Those shop stewards (who complained) were supporters of the former administration,” Mr. Colebrooke said.
“These are the shop stewards who refused to attend meetings, these are the shop stewards who refused to be a part (of the unionﾒs operations) and to continue to work for this membership. So when I hear persons (complaining) it is a sad day, simply because these persons refuse to be a part.”
However, Chief Shop Steward at Kerzner International, Perry Cox, sees it differently. Mr. Cox insisted that he has missed only a single meeting since the justice team took over.
“Like we said (Monday) night, right now the union elections are up in the air,” Mr. Cox said. “We donﾒt know which way to turn. We are not (suffering from) sour grapes, what we want is to see our union function from day to day.”
At the end of the day, he said, it is about the workers, who are “catching hell.”
“Whoever is declared to be the president, we are prepared to work for them,” Mr. Cox said.
Mr. Colebrooke addressed the issues raised by the disgruntled stewards about experience, noting that five members of his executive team served on the Rainbow executive, including long-serving member Basil McKenzie, who is now Treasurer.
On contract negotiations, Mr. Colebrooke forecast that, as other unions have done, the union would likely hire a consultant to help.
Sidney Rolle, Third Vice President of the union and a former Chief Shop Steward at Atlantis himself, insisted that the Justice team “had all of those (peopleﾒs) back,” but things appear to have changed.
“We had a meeting (Monday night) with the chief shop stewards,” Mr. Rolle explained. “We called them in and asked them if they are going to work with us or they are not going to work with us.”
“They agreed to work (with us), but then they (talk) all that garbage (about the Justice team).”
Mr. Rolle insisted that the detractors are Pat Bain supporters, asserting that they had in fact had a private meeting with Mr. Bain prior to their press conference.
“We are here about the peopleﾒs business, and we told them the Rainbow, the Justice team ﾖ that is past now, and itﾒs about the peopleﾒs business. But these guys are not understanding that.”
By: Quincy Parker, The Bahama Journal
