Flights have been suspended since Sunday afternoon when scores of workers called in sick, reportedly in protest over non-payment of salary increases, the dismissal of two Freeport employees, and uncertainty over possible salary cuts.
Airport, Airline and Allied Workers Union president Nellerine Harding told The Guardian Tuesday that after a one-hour meeting with labour conciliator Keith Archer and Bahamasair lawyer Alex Ferguson proved fruitless, the AAAWU filed a trade dispute with the Department of Labour seeking permission to take a strike vote.
“We have reached an impasse, and we have filed to take a strike vote which we would like to happen on Friday of this week,” Ms Harding said.
Though that was later denied by the national flag-carrier’s management, Ms Harding said when the employees reported to work on Tuesday, they were sent back home.
“Employees reported to work for the morning shift ﾖ flight attendants, engineers and administration personnel ﾖ and when they got there they were advised that they were to go back home,” she said. “On Monday, from negotiations started, the lawyer that is representing the company stated that they would not continue with any negotiations until employees report back to work.
“Well, I have no control of employees that called in sick because by our industrial agreement they are entitled to call in sick for two days,” she said.
In response, Bahamasair’s managing director Paul Major said that one flight attendant reported to work, and was subsequently sent home, which he acknowledged, “was wrong.”
He explained to The Guardian:
“One junior flight attendant reported to work this morning and the director of flight operations told the pilot clearly we are not flying, so you all may leave and you will be on call. If the flight attendants show up to work we will call you. He told the young lady, the only flight attendant, that you need flight attendants for every flight on a Dash 8, and two flight attendants for the jets. So clearly we are not going to resume flight operations with one flight and one plane.
“So he told her that she can leave also, which was wrong because we told everybody yesterday that if anybody shows up for work from the AAAWU must be allowed to work their shift in the event that everybody came to work, and we can resume operations. He then tried to get her back to tell her to come to work.”
Only a “trickle” of employees showed up in customer service, the airline chief said, with staff still absent from the accounting and reservations department.
“We had nowhere near enough people to resume operations,” Mr. Major said.
Discontent at Bahamasair reached critical mass on Sunday afternoon when more than 100 union members called in sick to force management’s hand in addressing several outstanding issues, including the company’s inability to pay increases due in July.
Angry passengers were placed on other airlines or resorted to charter services.
The sickout pushed the financially strapped airline losses to approximately $500,000 for wet-leasing aircraft (planes and crew), passenger accommodations, and the endorsing of coupons to charter operators and other foreign carriers.
At a press conference on Monday, Bahamasair’s chairman Basil Sands said: “It is abundantly clear that this was no sickout, but a pre-meditated, illegal industrial action. It is selfish, uncaring and inconsiderate on the part of the union to have attempted to inflict undue hardship on the traveling public and further financial burden on the taxpayer. This action by the union seems to have been timed to coincide with our peak demand going into the Thanksgiving and Christmas season.
“We are extremely disappointed with the unjustified action on the part of the AAAWU since there were no outstanding industrial issues that in our view warranted such action, especially in light of the lengths to which the airline has gone to keep Bahamasair afloat and protect the jobs of the staff,” he said.
With the company losing money on a sustained basis, this industrial action “cannot continue for too long,” Mr. Sands said. “We have obligations and we are hoping that this matter would be resolved satisfactorily as soon as possible.”
The Guardian has learnt that the wet-leasing agreements between Bahamasair and the contracted carriers end today, placing the company “in a rocky position if employees fail to return to work.”
By Tamara McKenzie, The Nassau Guardian
