FREEPORT, Grand Bahama – Incensed hotel union members, responding to a series of terminations at the Royal Oasis Resort, blocked the entrance to the property in Freeport this morning, a move that Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union President Pat Bain warned could be the precursor to a “massive” employee strike.
Defence and police force officials were called to the scene outside the Royal Oasis Resort, as vehicular traffic to the resort’s main entrance was halted. Visibly confused tourists were forced to seek alternative methods of returning to their rooms as angry and emotional employees stood in protest of what they call the “repeated injustices of Royal Oasis management.”
Last week, the resort terminated 41 hotel workers.
“For some time now we have been having a running battle with this particular hotel and it appears that it won’t stop until either Donald Archer or David Buddemeyer is out of the picture,” Mr. Bain told the Bahama Journal this morning. “This union has spoken to the Minister of Labour and to all the authorities. We have had a number of sit down meetings to resolve these problems and there have been no resolutions. We won’t tolerate this any longer.”
The union uprising forced Labour Minister Vincent Peet to fly to Grand Bahama to intervene. He was scheduled to mediate talks with the hotel union representatives and hotel managers at the Labour Board in Freeport.
The Royal Oasis Resort is the second largest hotel property on Grand Bahama and employs in excess of 900 workers. In recent months, the hotel and casino have been at the centre of repeated industrial struggles between resort management and union officials. These struggles ultimately escalated into strike votes being taken by both Hotel and Gaming Union members.
In March of this year, Royal Oasis employees were terminated, due to negative performance appraisals they received from foreign evaluators referred to as “spotters.” A press release issued by the resort at that time confirmed that “unidentified professionals” were hired to visit the resort and to sample every aspect of customer service. The evaluators are expected to write detailed reports of each area observed and to comment on what they considered to be both positive and negative performance.
From those reports, nine employees were terminated.
Last Friday, 37 employees were terminated and according to Hotel Union Second Vice President Lloyd Cooper, evaluations given by the resort’s hired personnel were the basis of the firings. Four additional employees were abruptly terminated on Saturday.
Employees who were fired in March maintained that the spotters had been dishonest in their appraisals and while resort executives confirmed that those terminations were the result of negative evaluations received, they insist that the 37 terminations last week were the result of global and local economic challenges.
Since the closure and eventual re-opening of the Royal Oasis Casino in December of last year due to reported industrial disputes, government and tourism officials have made numerous appeals for calm at that property.
But according to Royal Oasis employees, calm heads at the resort can no longer prevail under their present working conditions.
“If they want to know why we are not smiling, it is because of the anger that is caused by them,” noted one of the employees terminated last week. “They are hurting us and they don’t know how far they are going to push us.”
“What have I done to these people?” asked a bartender and cashier Genevieve Collie, who was also terminated last week.
She was initially fired in March and later re-instated.
“Something has to be done in this Bahamas. Yes we want the investors to come in but not if they will discriminate against Bahamians and I am calling on the Minister of Labour and the Prime Minister to do something and do it quickly because I am an angry woman right now and I need relief,” she said.
Minister of Labour and Immigration Vincent Peet, who spoke with the Bahama Journal moments after the start of this morning’s blockade, noted that he would continue to watch the “very emotional and tense atmosphere at the Royal Oasis Resort.”
“What I can say at this point is that I am monitoring the situation,” Minister Peet said. “I have spoken to both sides and will once again have to find a way to bring them both back to the table.”
Meanwhile, union officials are not expressing optimism regarding the success of future talks with management of the Royal Oasis Resort.
“I am not optimistic because it is clear that this management has no respect for the government of the Bahamas,” Pat Bain noted. “Every time we conclude our meetings with the government, the hotel turns around and continues its same tactics again. “This blockade will continue until we find a resolution and if it comes to the hotel wanting to terminate some 938 workers, let them attempt to do so, but the blockade goes on.”
Up to press time, Royal Oasis executives have issued no comment on the blockade or on the four additional terminations which took place this past Saturday.
The Bahama Journal
