Officially opening the first Bahamas Tripartite Productivity seminar at Workers House today, Labour and Immigration Minister Vincent Peet told union members that should they not choose to embrace the concept, “we will not survive the challenges that the FTAA [Free Trade Area of the Americas ] will bring our way.”
“A country or company can only increase its competitiveness through enhancing its productivity, by raising the value-added content of its products and services faster than its competitors,” Minister Peet said.
Higher productivity then, will enable our country to expand its capital worth and attract more investment, which will lead to more employment opportunities and a higher standard of living for all those who live in this great little country of ours.”
Adding that such a responsibility not only befalls union members, the Minister said that increasing the country’s productivity should be the watchword of every Bahamian, regardless of their vocation.
“We cannot expect to extract something from nothing,” he said. “It does not and cannot work that way.”
If a country fails to increase the value-added content of its activities, it will not be able to do several things – increase pay for its employees, increase its re-investment with borrowing, effectively raise funds from the finance markets for further investment and create better value to its customers, he said.
President of the Airport Airline and Allied Workers Union (AAAWU) Frank Carter said over the next three days the seminar will focus on various ways to increase, measure and overcome the country’s productivity gap between the ideal and the real.
The seminar is facilitated by Mr. John Pilgrim and The Barbados National Productivity Council.
Mr. Carter said it will also highlight ways for trade union leaders and members to establish a better working relationship with one another – working with each other, understanding the issue and speak with one voice.
“We also hope that at the end of the day, social partners will be able to form a Steering Committee to work on the formation of a Productivity Council for The Bahamas, whose emphasis will be on increasing productivity,” Mr. Carter said. “We have to realize that as a small developing country, our greatest resource is our people.”
By Macushla N. Pinder, The Bahama Journal
