The action followed a general meeting in New Providence on Monday night.
President of the Airport Airline and Allied Workers Union (AAAWU) Nelerene Harding said on Tuesday that the workers are sending a message to the government that the no-salary increase offer would never be accepted.
“We have to live in this country,” Ms. Harding said. “We have to be able to go in the food stores; we have to pay our light bills, and all the basic things that are needed. There has to be some consideration given to giving these employees some increase based on what the cost of living increase has gone up to.”
She said the workers participating in the action are working, but they are not going beyond the call of duty, they are not working overtime and they will not be coming in to work on their days off if needed.
The union president said the employees were prepared to be on work-to-rule “until we get some answers”.
Ms. Harding said the union has written to the prime minister, who has ministerial responsibility for Bahamasair, and asked him to intervene.
“We have reached an impasse and we definitely now would like to have no more meetings with the labour consultants and the managing director because we feel that after sitting and negotiating for nine months in good faith with the company and the labour consultants, we have reached this level where (the prime minister) has to now intervene to try to bring some closure to this matter,” she said.
“The members have told me unequivocally that there is no way that they could continue to live in the Commonwealth of the Bahamas and work for Bahamasair without having an increase (in salary).”
As reported by The Bahama Journal earlier this week, the union is asking for an eight percent raise in the first year of the five-year contract and it wants workers to be entitled to increments every year if they meet the accepted work standards.
But the government has offered New Providence and Grand Bahama workers a $500 lump sum payment each year for three years; and it wants to pay Family Island employees a $300 lump sum payment over that same period.
Under the governmentﾒs plan, the workers would only get increments during the last two years of the industrial agreement. They would get no salary increases.
Ms. Harding said no way.
And she is hoping that the work-to-rule gets the airlineﾒs and governmentﾒs attention in such a way that they would be willing to reconsider their offer.
The workers went on work-to-rule about six weeks ago after the government proposed to cut the pay of each Bahamasair employee by five percent. But the government bent from its position and decided against the pay cut amid growing industrial tension.
The AAAWU then called off the work-to-rule and promised that it would continue to negotiate in good faith, but negotiations ended on a bad note on Friday after the union was presented with the governmentﾒs latest offer.
Bahamasair officials could not be reached on Tuesday to comment on the latest developments, but Ms. Harding said the union was confident that it would be able to meet with the prime minister before the end of the week.
“We want him to see if he can bring some happy medium to [this impasse],” said Ms. Harding, who added that Prime Minister Perry Christie had assured her that he would look into the issue on Tuesday.
“I think he has realized that the union has acted in good faith, and I believe that he would definitely like to see it resolved. I am getting that message from him, that he needs it to be resolved.”
The union executive said it is important for the government to come with something “serious” to the table so that negotiations can resume.
By: Candia Dames, The Bahama Journal
