A day after government negotiators lashed out at executives of The Bahamas Union of Teachers (BUT) for reportedly refusing to negotiate an industrial agreement for teachers, union officials threatened industrial action.
“All members of the Bahamas Union of Teachers are on amber alert until further instructions from your shop stewards,” said Ida Poitier-Turnquest, BUT president. “We
are asking our teachers to be ready for further instructions.”
Mrs. Poitier-Turnquest told reporters on Thursday that her team had showed up to negotiate at the Department of Public Service, but no government negotiator was there.
However, government negotiator, Frank Carter, told The Bahama Journal that the union officials were only seeking to attract media attention by claiming that they were prepared to resume negotiations.
“There was an agreement that if we reach an impasse on any articles we would continue to negotiate and go through both documents, the government’s proposal and the BUT’s proposal,” Mr. Carter explained.
“Last Tuesday, the BUT took the position that [it] wanted the Industrial Tribunal to review the matter of the recognition agreement and Mrs. Turnquest, the president of the union, stated that the BUT was not prepared to go any further with the negotiations until there is an interpretation regarding the bargaining unit.”
Mr. Carter claimed that he was handed a copy of a letter from the union president, which was sent to the Industrial Tribunal on March 14.
“Given the union’s stated position, that [it] was not prepared to go any further with negotiations, the government’s team, having other important assignments, did not intend to negotiate [on Thursday],” Mr. Carter said.
He said negotiators had informed the union’s executives that they would have to alert the negotiators when they were prepared to continue negotiations, but they never did.
On Wednesday, lead negotiator, Keith Archer, charged that during meetings, the union demonstrated an “uncooperative, argumentative and disruptive spirit”.
But Mrs. Poitier-Turnquest refuted Mr. Archer’s claims on Thursday, saying that the teachers not only acted in good faith, but also have continued to show up at the arranged negotiating times.
“Over the past several weeks we have negotiated in good faith, but the government [negotiators have] not reciprocated,” she claimed. “They are attempting to destroy our union. We invite the government to come back to the table and negotiate in good faith and desist from using this as a stalling tactic.”
According to Mrs. Poitier-Turnquest the union and the government’s team had agreed on February 21 to meet every Tuesday and Thursday at 10:30am to 1:30pm for negotiations.
“We are very disappointed in the government [negotiators] that they are not here this morning to negotiate with us,” she said.
“I think they have been disruptive because they continue to attempt to dismember our bargaining unit and they are not prepared to move ahead in good faith.”
The union leader charged that the government’s team was using busting tactics to try and divide the union’s strength. However, she said she would not allow the government’s team to dictate who should be represented by the bargaining unit.
The government wants to reach conclusion on two agreements, an industrial agreement and a recognition agreement, which would state who is represented by the union.
However, union officials said under no circumstances would they accept the government’s proposal to exclude non-classroom teachers from the industrial agreement.
Mrs. Poitier-Turnquest said 1,200 of BUT members who are librarians, guidance counselors, principals and other administrative staff would be impacted.
“For the past 59 years of The Bahamas Union of Teachers we have been representing all teachers in the public school system,” she said. “The government can not at this time decide arbitrarily who would be in our bargaining unit.”
Mr. Carter told The Bahama Journal that the government’s negotiating team is prepared to continue negotiations on Tuesday.
He said the government was waiting on the Industrial Tribunal to make a determination on who should be included in the bargaining unit.
By: Bianca Symonette, The Bahama Journal
