Last week, the 95 workers of The Bahamas Industrial Manufacturers and Allied Workers Union threatened to go on strike after the union and management failed to see eye-to-eye on how to settle the contentious back pay issue under an expired industrial agreement. The union voted to take strike action last September.
Glenn Bannister, Managing Director Morton Bahamas Ltd, told The Guardian that he had been attempting to arrange a meeting with the union, but its president, attorney Obie Ferguson has yet to respond.
He said that on April 18 a letter was drafted and forwarded to Mr Ferguson to “clarify and confirm” the basis upon which the proposed binding private arbitration would be conducted, and also to corroborate the issues to be put before the arbitrator.
“To date, we are still waiting on a response from Mr Obie Ferguson,” said Mr Bannister. “Morton stands ready and willing to begin negotiation on a new industrial agreement at any time.”
Just two weeks ago, Mr Ferguson accused Morton of dodging negotiations.
“One of the conditions we advanced was that we asked for a counter-proposal to our proposal prior to the commencement of these negotiations,” said Mr Ferguson, adding that, “Morton has refused to give us a date to begin negotiations and refused to give us a counter-proposal.”
Mr Ferguson also said that with respect to the retroactive pay, Morton had only made partial payment to the workers. He called on Minister of Labour Shane Gibson to intervene.
However, according to Mr Bannister, full payment was made to the employees.
“As a gesture of industrial goodwill and good faith the company paid a substantial sum of money to all active employees,” said Mr Bannister. “Nevertheless, the union has indicated that they do not agree that these issues have been properly resolved.”
He added that in a meeting at the Department of Labour on February 28, the union requested that certain issues be referred to binding arbitration as a pro-condition to proceeding with negotiations for a new industrial agreement. These issues include: production bonuses for 2003 and 2004; a variation of the work week (whereby certain maintenance employees are scheduled to work on Saturday); retroactive pay; red-circled employees; payment for compassionate leave and holiday pay.
By: MINDELL SMALL, The Nassau Guardian
