A round of meetings with Prime Minister Perry Christie and a number of other government officials have, for now, quieted rowdy members of the Bahamas Electrical Workers Union (BEWU) who have been in protest mode for three straight days.
According to BEWU President Stephano Greene some positive steps have been taken in the Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC) industrial action saga as the prime minister did live up to his word and had a meeting with the union on Thursday and early Friday morning.
“It was a very productive meeting,” he said. “We discussed all of our matters, however, we were unable to get any resolution to any of the matters but we did get a strong commitment from the prime minister that the matters will continued to be discussed and we did discuss some of them on (Friday) and we’re hoping to have some resolutions next week.”
Mr. Greene said the plan is to meet with the prime minister and other officials until the issues are resolved.
He added that following the talks, the union was given a strong commitment that their grievances will be addressed.
The BEWU president said that as with any negotiations he knows that everything will not be 100 per cent in their favour.
For three straight days the union held no holds barred demonstration as they protest the firing and suspension of two of their colleagues and call for BEC Chairman Leslie Miller’s termination.
“What we are looking for in BEC is good industrial relations throughout BEC,” he added. “We would love to have a good relationship with the chairman and board of directors at BEC.
“We think we have that with the management of BEC and if the government can foster that with the chairman of course we are prepared as trade unionists, as adults to work with the chairman the government appoints.”
Now Mr. Greene said all of his members have been instructed to return to work and up to Friday all of the members were back to work and plan to do their jobs to their best ability during the talks.
“Once you meet with the prime minister of the country there’s no reason to be on the streets, there’s no reason to take any action. We take the prime minister’s word as gospel and we look forward to working with him.”
Reports are that investigations are ongoing into claims of sabotage at one of the corporation’s main plants.
