Those investors include groups looking to pump millions of dollars into developments on the Cable Beach Strip and in Eleuthera.
Just recently, Prime Minister Perry Christie announced that he was working with investors who wanted to bring close to $1 billion in investments to New Providence and Eleuthera.
After meeting this week with Mr. Christie, executives of the Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union and the Bahamas Hotel Employers’ Association were still unable to reach compromise and conclude an industrial agreement.
The prime minister has warned that a strike could do irreparable damage to the country’s number one sector.
On Thursday, union officials and hotel employers were set to meet with the Minister of Labour, but were still at odds over salary increases for more than 6,000 workers at 11 hotel properties.
Association President J. Barrie Farrington told the Journal Wednesday that no significant movement had been made.
A source close to the talks, meanwhile, said that both sides have apparently resigned themselves to the fact that a strike is imminent, with hoteliers already formulating contingency plans.
The strike would come at a time when many properties are still trying to bounce back from what Hotel Association President Jeremy MacVean has called the worst September in more than 25 years.
The period July through September was also a time when hotel revenue dropped nearly 44 percent over the third quarter of 2002.
Mr. MacVean has said that the winter season is a period when hoteliers should be banking on the anticipated increase in visitor arrivals.
In a release issued to the media on December 6, the Employers’ Association also warned of the damage a strike could cause to the industry.
“It will worsen already depressing economic conditions by inflicting long lasting damage to the industry’s reputation,” the release said. “In the event of a strike, not only could current guests decide to cut short their trips, but when they get home they will undoubtedly spread the bad news to others considering a vacation for the upcoming peak season.”
With no successful end to negotiations appearing to be in site, hotel union executives continue to threaten strike action.
Just over 1,000 hotel workers voted two weeks ago to strike, with only a few voting against it.
Other investors, meanwhile, are said to be watching these developments.
A number of pending projects are presently in the pipeline, according to government officials.
The prime minister himself has announced significant projects set to come on stream beginning next year, including a $2.5 billion investment for West Grand Bahama that would materialize over 18 years.
Candia Dames, The Bahama Journal
