The Bahamas Public Services Union (BPSU) President Kimsley Ferguson said “enough is enough” and vowed to continue to fight, as some 200 members at the Princess Margret Hospital (PMH) withdrew their services and walked off the job yesterday.
According to Ferguson, the strike came on the heels of a meeting with Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis, where he informed that government would not meet the union’s request which was a full lump sum payment to assist workers.
“You could look around you and you could see that these people have had it. We have people who have to make a conscience decision to either keep a roof over their heads or to buy food, much less prepare their children for school,” Mr. Ferguson said.
“So if the government wants a fight, a fight they will get.”
According to Mr. Ferguson, there was an agreement with the prime minister to pay public servants and PMH employees some $1,200, but there seemed to have been a misunderstanding.
“We expressed to the deputy prime minister that we’ve had this discussion with the prime minister and we were here with a view that he was going to give the treasury and the public service their instructions because they were present in the meeting, but however it didn’t go that way,” Mr. Ferguson said.
“He had asked if we would accept the payment in two tranches. However, that was inconvenient to the officers who are challenged with preparing their kids for back to school.
“This is not money that we are asking for. This is money that we are deserving of because our industrial agreement is currently being negotiated.
“We are recognizing the fact that there are some stalling tactics with all of our negotiations when they reach the financial aspects of the negotiations.”
This is the second action taken by the BPSU in just two weeks.
On August 8, employees in the records department at PMH walked off the job because of a malfunction with the air conditioning unit in the records department. The situation has since been rectified.
Yesterday however, the BPSU said it will continue to withdraw its services until the government meets the demands of union members.
