Bahamas Electrical Utility Managerial Union President Irvin Dean said on Friday the BEUMU is preparing for a “shock and awe” strike campaign if the executive management team of the Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC) does not come to a concensus with his union over pay increases and a new industrial agreement.
The union held a strike vote on Friday that ended 78 to 1 in favor of a strike, but Dean said before the managers engage in action, they will give BEC until the beginning of next week to respond.
Ninety-six managers were eligible to vote.
Dean said the corporation made an offer to the union Thursday night that was so “offensive”, he could not bring it to his members.
The union staged a sick-out last week in an act of industrial unrest. Dean said then that the union was agitating for BEC to either negotiate a new industrial agreement, which hasn’t happened for four years, or adhere to the conventions of the old agreement, which he claimed BEC is not doing.
Trade Union Congress (TUC) President Obie Ferguson said the ball is in BEC’s court. He contended that its executive management team has to meet with the union members to flesh out a sensible industrial agreement that will be beneficial to both sides.
Dean said BEC has boasted of profits in the past several months and the union simply wants the share that it did not push for for three years due to the depressed state of the economy.
