A decision by Minister of Labour Vincent Peet to send the dispute between the Hotel Union and the Nassau Yacht Club to the Industrial Tribunal prompted another demonstration outside the club on Tuesday.<\/P><\/p>\n
At the heart of the dispute is the termination of 11 employees amid negotiations for an industrial agreement.<\/P><\/p>\n
In announcing that he was sending the dispute to the Tribunal, Minister Peet said on Monday that he still expected negotiations to continue for that new contract.<\/P><\/p>\n
The union\uffb4s general secretary, Leo Douglas, led the latest demonstration. During the quiet protest, the workers, who were carrying placards asking for the minister and the prime minister to do more to resolve the matter, chanted for justice.<\/P><\/p>\n
Mr. Douglas said it was improper for Minister Peet to take the course of action he took because he never brought both parties together to discuss their concerns.<\/P><\/p>\n
\uff93The union is disappointed to see the Minister communicate to the union through the media,\uff92 Mr. Douglas said. \uff93At no time did the Minister call the union and state the position of the employers.\uff92<\/P><\/p>\n
He added, \uff93The Hotel Union executive met with the Minister on Sunday\uff85We adjourned Sunday evening and he asked us to send a position paper [on] the position we had [as it relates to] the industrial agreement negotiations and we did that [Monday]\uff85After that, we saw the Minister on TV and on radio stating that he sent some dispute over to the Industrial Tribunal.\uff92<\/P><\/p>\n
But Minister Peet told The Bahama Journal that he did not act without the union\uffb4s knowledge.<\/P><\/p>\n
\uff93Mr. Pat Bain (the union\uffb4s president) was made aware of [the decision to refer the matter] and was fully aware of what I was about to do and that was the course I took,\uff92 he told The Bahama Journal shortly after coming out of a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.<\/P><\/p>\n
Mr. Douglas believes that Minister Peet sent a bad signal in handling the matter the way he did.<\/P><\/p>\n
\uff93At no time did the Minister call the Hotel Union back and say, \uff91This is where we\uffb4re at. The employer had this to say and this is what you all had to say\uffb4. We know the Minister is the Minister and he has the authority to say anything. We don\uffb4t have the TV coverage like him perhaps, but we believe the minister should have [been more courteous] because that is an insult to the union.\uff92<\/P><\/p>\n
Minister Peet has said that there should be no industrial action taken while the matter is before the Industrial Tribunal, but Mr. Douglas said that the union will continue to demonstration until the matter is resolved.<\/P><\/p>\n
Raymond Wright, assistant general secretary, said \uff93enough is enough\uff92, but he said \uff93hell will freeze over\uff92 before the union allows management to treat the workers unfairly.<\/P><\/p>\n
\uff93We have been driven to the point. We are at the end and we\uffb4re not stopping now. This is only the tip of the iceberg, you know,\uff92 Mr. Wright said. \uff93If this matter is not resolved, imagine what will happen at the other properties. This is just a trickle down effect you know.\uff92<\/P><\/p>\n
Managers of the Yacht Club have made no public statements on the matter.<\/P><\/p>\n
After meeting with both sides on Sunday and Monday, Minister Peet said neither party was willing to compromise.<\/P><\/p>\n
Stephen Gay, The Bahama Journal<\/SMALL><\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The union is disappointed to see the Minister communicate to the union through the media,’ said Union leader, Leo Douglas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-246688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-headlines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246688\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}