Several Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC) trucks were sabotaged sometime between late Thursday and early Friday morning, according to corporation chairman, Leslie Miller.

Mr. Miller, who spoke to The Bahama Journal early Friday morning, said he received a call late Thursday about several trucks at their parking lot on Tucker Road being “compromised.”

“We discovered that sometime after 6:00 p.m. [Thursday] that several of the big trucks parked on the property had tires malfunctioned,” he said Friday morning.

“They took out all the stems from the tires. We called Speedy Tire and Repair to have the issue dealt with. This is just some of the petty things that these guys are resorting to. Hopefully they will have enough sense to not disrupt the Carifta Games because if they do there would be severe consequences. I’m asking them to cease and desist from doing their foolishness during the Easter season.”

When asked whether he felt the BEC line staff was responsible for the sabotage, Mr. Miller said he was more than certain.

“They had a press conference and they were raising eternal hell and then that same evening we got a call to go check the tires,” he said.

“It couldn’t just be some fella off the street who did this.”

Members of the Bahamas Electrical Workers Union (BEWU) demonstrated with the National Congress of Trade Unions of the Bahamas (NCTUB) outside BEC’s headquarters on Tucker Road Baillou Hill Road last Thursday.
They were protesting the corporation’s decision to cut staff overtime.
BEC cut its staff overtime payments by almost 54 per cent in February, according to Mr. Miller.
He said some workers at the corporation had become accustomed to an extravagant lifestyle as a result of overtime pay.
He said BEC implemented measures to cut its average $1 million per month overtime bill, and saw a 53.8 per cent reduction last month.
“We have cut it down after we put some parameters in place. The year was averaging $1 million a month,” he said earlier this month.
The BEC chairman said there were some workers who had taken home up to $85,000 a year in overtime.
“If we don’t save BEC for ourselves there will be no BEC. It is in a situation that it has never been in before,” he said.
“You have some who believe that they own the corporation. They have become accustomed to a lifestyle based on overtime. They have become accustomed to the abuse and misuse of our money; it’s madness.”
The Journal tried to reach BEWU members for comment, but calls were not returned up to press time.