President of the Bahamas Electrical Workers Union (BEWU) Dennis Williams charged this week that BEC’s management is failing to negotiate a new industrial agreement in good faith. But it is a claim corporation officials denied on Wednesday.
Mr. Williams said in a press statement that the corporation has refused to reasonably address the union’s concerns which he said has led to an inordinate delay in completing the contract.
“We see an insistence on BEC’s part of not wanting to sit down and bilaterally solve all of the issues,” he said.
Mr. Williams added, “It must be [a situation] where we sit down at the table, iron out all the points, BEC brings [its] documents, the BEWU brings [its] documents and we integrate and merge them.”
The priority issues for the union are salary anomalies for technical staff; salary increases-particularly in relation to BEC’s pension plan and an allowance for workers in the Family Islands.
Mr. Williams criticized BEC’s General Manager (Designate) Kevin Basden, saying, “Mr. Basden represents the hard-line right-winged faction of BEC’s management team.”
But BEC officials said in their release that, they are dismayed by Mr. Williams’ remarks.
They called his statements “distasteful, inflammatory and completely unwarranted.”
“It is important for the president of the BEWU to note that Mr. Kevin Basden…has a duty to always behave in a reasonable and prudent manner and also has a fiduciary responsibility to conduct, operate and manage the affairs of the corporation on sound business principles and is accountable to the BEC Board of Directors, the government and the public.
“Mr. Williams must also realize that he is first an employee of the corporation and is not above the rules and regulations and must be seen to be complying with the code of conduct established by the corporation.”
The officials said that, “Mr. Williams’ actions and irresponsible behaviour is deemed to be reckless, malicious and a deliberate attempt to malign the integrity of the general manager-designate. This is considered a major breach of company policy.”
They said that once again, the union appears to be shifting the goal post at every turn with regards to the two major issues that are outstanding.
“The union now seeks to introduce other issues as pivotal points for a resolution of these talks,” the release said. “The corporation sees this constant shifting of the goal post by the union as not negotiating in good faith.”
The BEC union president also said Minister of Labour and Immigration Vincent Peet, told union executives that the BEWU-BEC Industrial Agreement would soon be finalized.
The union capitalized on sensitive industrial negotiations that were going on between the Bahamas Hotel Employers Association and the hotel union in December by staging a sick out in mid-December and threatening to take nationwide strike action two days before Christmas.
But the Labour Minister thwarted that possible action by denying permission for the strike to take place.
Julian Reid, The Bahama Journal
