Government negotiators yesterday issued a “reasoned and dispassionate” appeal to Bahamas Union of Teachers leaders — return to the bargaining table on Tuesday and end the “disharmony and high drama.”
The appeal was made by Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Public Service Fred Mitchell and follows an industrial action threat from the BUT and weeks of turbulence between the government’s Negotiating Committee and union leaders.
BUT President Ida Poitier-Turnquest told The Bahama Journal yesterday that union executives would be at the bargaining table on Tuesday and “had never left.”
The issue came to head on Wednesday, March 1st when hundreds of teachers marched on Parliament Square, rejecting the government’s proposed industrial agreement. And then late last week BUT leaders revealed that they had put their members on “amber” alert, claiming that negotiators did not show up to the bargaining table last Thursday.
Government negotiators denied that they had been scheduled to meet on March 16th and said that in order for negotiations to be successful, partners must operate in good faith, understand the issues and understand the role and need for civility in public discourse and across the negotiating table.
“We need to get on with the substantive business and stop the drama, and spoiling for a fight where no one from the government is interested in fighting,” Mr. Mitchell said yesterday in a lengthy statement.
“Any reasonable proposals will be settled forthwith. Let us do that and stop all the public haranguing which is simply not becoming. We simply want to get these matters settled so that the job of teaching can be done, and looking after our future, the children of the country.”
Pointing to the government’s first issue of concern, Mr. Mitchell said it was clear that the leadership of the BUT is either “confused or not properly advised,” noting that under the current recognition agreement, discussions were confined to salary issues only.
“The second issue, which arises out of the existing recognition agreement, is that it combines both rank and file and management employees in one bargaining unit; whereas the Industrial Relations Act and the industrial relations thereto, separates the rank and file from management,” explained the minister. “Both are eligible for industrial agreement, but not in the same union.”
Mr. Mitchell said that since the BUT’s argument is that the other issues are so “thorny” and an impasse is declared, the government can easily confine itself to salary only and “be done with this matter.”
“The leadership of the BUT does not seem to appreciate the existing law on these points, and they have insisted that the matter be referred to the Industrial Tribunal for a finding. But there is a further point, there is a question of whether the Industrial Tribunal has jurisdiction to hear such a matter,” said Mr. Mitchell.
The government’s view, he said, is that the tribunal may not have jurisdiction and that the matter ought to be placed before the Supreme Court for determination.
However, BUT has insisted that they will go no further until the matter is settled, even though government negotiators believe that the issue should be set aside and other issues proceeded with.
As it stands now, an industrial agreement is not possible given the present terms of the recognition agreement that was signed between the government and the union in 1965, according to Mr. Mitchell.
“But we are willing to negotiate a new recognition agreement, except that we say that the managers and administrators of the school system: principals, vice-principals and senior masters and mistresses ought to be excluded from the bargaining unit,” he said. “That makes sense, since if a strike is called, the managers of the system must be able to be on the job and run the school.”
Mr. Mitchell said that while the BUT has called this “union busting,” such a decision “does not and will not” prevent the principals and other administrators from being union members, “but they cannot be part of the bargaining unit and engage in industrial action.”
The government’s main concern, said Mr. Mitchell, is to settle the matter in the way that is most appropriate in the best interests of the country and the Ministry of Education, adding that the Negotiating Committee – Frank Carter and Keith Archer – has the full support of the government.
Mr. Mitchell said that based on the level of “invective” within the meetings from BUT leaders, “it is almost as if there is a wish that there will be no settlement.”
Said Mr. Mitchell: “[Government negotiators] will be at the table on Tuesday awaiting the BUT’s leadership and what we hope is that there will be substantive discussions and an atmosphere of civility across the table. We must demonstrate that we mean to settle these issues.”
By: Erica Wells, The Bahama Journal
