Five shop stewards who were recently terminated from the Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union are demanding that they be reinstated, but the head of the Justice Team, which is currently running the union, has said this will not happen.
A letter was sent to each of the five shop stewardsﾒ place of employment at the Cable Beach Resorts on Monday notifying the human resources department that the members were no longer authorized to conduct any business on the unionﾒs behalf.
According to Stephen Burrows, one of the terminated shop stewards, the hotels should not honour the letter, which was signed by the unionﾒs assistant secretary general, Anwar Taylor.
The shop stewards said they were axed because they spoke truth.
“We held a press conference last week over the misuse of funds and abuse of power by the executive council and on Monday after Leo Douglas (the unionﾒs secretary general) started his vacation, this letter was issued to terminate us, but they canﾒt terminate us because under the constitution the executive council can not terminate any member without the secretary generalﾒs consent,” Mr. Burrows said.
“Mr. [Roy] Colebrooke is not the president of this union. He is misleading 8,000 plus members. He is the executive organizer and consultant so he has no right to execute terminations.”
The union has been in upheaval ever since disputed elections in May. The matter is now before the Supreme Court, which has to determine whether those elections were free and fair.
Results released by the Department of Labour showed a tie between Mr. Colebrooke and Pat Bain, who was the incumbent president.
Although the two men tied, labour officials declared Mr. Colebrooke president and the court authorized him to sign cheques on the unionﾒs behalf.
Mr. Douglas was the only member of Mr. Bainﾒs Rainbow Team, who had a clear victory, winning by a few votes.
In the wake of the elections, the Cable Beach shop stewards have been vocal, accusing Mr. Colebrooke and his team of misappropriating funds and mismanaging the union, although itﾒs a claim they deny.
The five shop stewards told The Bahama Journal on Thursday their terminations came as a surprise. They said they had received no warning from the union that their recent conduct was considered unsatisfactory.
However, Mr. Colebrooke told the Bahama Journal that the shop stewards had been informed of this at a recent meeting.
He said stripping them of their titles was legal under the unionﾒs constitution.
“Rule 22 of the constitution states the executive council may fine, suspend or expel any member to the satisfaction of the council who have been guilty of conduct. These individuals were guilty of conduct,” Mr. Colebrooke said.
“What they are saying and the nonsense they are carrying on with is not in the best interest of this organization at this time.”
Harrison Williams, former chief shop steward at the Radisson Cable Beach Resort, said the terminations were wrong.
“All I am saying to the Justice Team if they had to wait for the general secretary, who is Leo Douglas, to leave the island before they did what they had to do. They are cowards because they had all the opportunity to fire while Mr. Douglas was in office,” Mr. Williams said.
“If youﾒre going to take a shop steward after ﾑxﾒ amount of years and now put him in harmﾒs way and put his job at risk by firing [him] as a shop steward because he spoke out for the people, thatﾒs wrong; thatﾒs totally wrong.”
During the interview with the Bahama Journal, Mr. Burrows and the other terminated shop stewards presented documents, which they claimed supported their accusations that the Justice Team was misusing union funds.
The documents showed that certain members of the new executive team have been receiving thousands of dollars for back pay, gas allowances and cell phone payments.
The shop stewards ﾖ who also include Queenie Russell, Sonia Walkine and Marine Roberts ﾖ hope that Mr. Douglas will act on their behalf and get them reinstated once he returns from vacation.
By: Bianca Symonette, The Bahama Journal
