Mr. Moss is the president of the Bahamas Utilities Services and Allied Workers Union.
Refusing to allow him to present his message, the employees, a part of the union, shouted over Mr. Moss forcing him and media representatives to take cover in his office. They shouted that the only thing they wanted to see him do was resign.
Dozens of police officers, participating in a training exercise, alerted officers on duty in the area who helped to calm the angry workers.
Some of the placards read, “Enough is enough,” “Heudley Moss has to go,” “We want our union back,” “This one man show has to be shutdown” and “Mr. President… no Mr. Treasurer, we want to see the books.”
Their main concern was centred on “the books,” as they phrased it. They claimed Mr. Moss kept financial records away from them for years and questioned how he could collect $1,800 a month in union dues and other benefits from the W&SC when they worked hard and were being prevented from receiving further increases.
Mr. Moss told the protesters they could not expect to get additional increases when they were not qualified, not even at the Bahamas Junior Certificate (BJC) level.
Those comments did not sit well with the demonstrators as some said the remarks were condescending. Their anger escalated further as a result.
One protester Edson Cooper, a foreman said, “He doesn’t feel that he should come back and tell us how he’s spending our money. He is signing deals with management and he is not coming back to the membership. We don’t know what he is signing,” he said.
He added that Mr. Moss was trying to blackmail his membership into doing what he wanted and not what the union wanted. When asked what action the union would take as a result, Mr. Cooper said the demonstration was the first step.
“But if it comes down to taking criminal action against him for spending money he is not supposed to, then that’s what we gatta do,” he hollered.
Mr. Moss’ tenure ends in one year but the foreman said the president had 11 years to “straighten out” the matter and the union would give him until the end of the month to show what he had done with its funds.
“He don’t talk to us, his treasurer don’t talk to us, his secretary don’t talk to us. We gat over 300 members and he believe that we too stupid for him to come back to,” he charged.
He said when Mr. Moss assumed the presidency in 1992 the union had over $36,000 on deposit with 250 union members paying $6 in dues.
Another demonstrator, Ricky Rolle backed up those comments and shouted that today; there are over 300 members who pay $25 in dues with only about $2,000 left in the bank.
In response to the union members, from his office, Mr. Moss denied misappropriating union funds.
He said a consultant who was hired by the former government determined that the W&SC was overstaffed, somewhere between 88 and 100 people. He said if the W&SC were forced to downsize its staff, it would have to release the workers who were making the “big, fat gussiemae salaries with not even a BJC behind their name.”
He said many of the employees still have the mindset that the taxpayers and citizens of The Bahamas owe them something. He urged the employees to try to be the best that they could be on the job and as multi-dimensional as possible.
“Nobody is going to pay a semi-trained person for an entry-level position, $28,000, $29,000 a year. That is not going to happen. It is not going to happen nowhere in the Commonwealth of The Bahamas,” he said.
He said the workers who were most upset were the ones receiving up to 14 and 15 per cent increases in salary every year when other unions could not afford anywhere near that amount.
He stressed that the demonstration would in no way, shape or form, change the union’s position on the increases. He also thanked the PLP government for, as he phrased it, “not allowing political factions and considerations to determine how it runs the corporation.” He said since the change in government there had been no promotion exercise.
“For the first time in the history of BUSAWU, the government did not use its political empowerment to help anybody. So the only way you can move up on this job is by way of being promoted by the W&SC management,” he said.
He added that the most qualified and productive workers had been the ones paying the majority of the union dues and earning the smallest salaries, which he called unfair. He said he intended to address the anomaly and that a review of the salaries would be conducted at the end of the month.
Mr. Moss’ press release also made the position of promotion based on merit clear. It said in an effort to make the W&SC and The Bahamas more competitive, BUSAWU would not seek a mandatory or an across-the-board increase in salary when its next industrial agreement is signed very shortly. It explained that a merit increase is unquestionably the way to go and that an across-the-board salary increase is no longer appropriate for essential utility service workers in New Providence.
The release also pointed out that because the union is preparing itself for a competitive environment it was able to complete the last payment on its first piece of real estate in October 2003. Gratitude was expressed to the Royal Bank of Canada on JFK Drive, which granted the union the loan necessary to purchase the land. Mr. Moss added that prior to his tenure, BUSAWU had no physical presence.
The Minister of Works and Utilities Bradley Roberts, showed up at the demonstration however, he said he was not the best person to respond to questions regarding the incident. He said the matter was between the union members and the president.
Mindell Small, The Nassau Guardian
