Striking is not the answer

Sun, Jan 18th 2015, 11:16 PM

On January 9, the Department of Statistics announced that the unemployment rate in The Bahamas went up. The national jobless rate rose from 14.3 percent in May 2014 to 15.7 percent in November 2014.
The survey, which has a reference period of October 27 to November 2, 2014, shows that both New Providence and Grand Bahama saw increases in unemployment.
In New Providence, the unemployment rate grew from 15 percent to 16 percent, and in Grand Bahama it increased from 14.7 percent to 18.6 percent. The Department of Statistics also conducted a survey in Abaco, which recorded an unemployment rate of 20.3 percent.
The jobs market is still weak in The Bahamas nearly seven years after the financial crisis. Those who have jobs should be grateful and be working to do all they can to maintain them.
The survey shows that 31,540 people were listed as unemployed -17,145 women and 14,395 men. Youth unemployment stood at 31 percent in November compared to 28 percent in May 2014.
In this context the stance of the workers at Melia Nassau Beach resort is misguided.
Line staff at the resort on Friday voted overwhelmingly in support of a strike amid a dispute between the union and the hotel over gratuities, according to Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union (BHCAWU) General Secretary Darren Woods.
The union has challenged Baha Mar's decision to remove an automatic 15 percent gratuity from the food and beverage bills of hotel guests at Melia as it transitions into an all-inclusive resort.
In December, Melia obtained an injunction that prevented the union or employees from taking industrial action. However, the union said that injunction expired on Wednesday.
The two sides were engaged in negotiations for months, but union executives have said those meetings were fruitless.
Woods accused hotel officials of attempting to hold the union's members hostage by withholding gratuities as leverage with a new industrial agreement.
"Either we agree to what they want or there is nothing," he said. "What they have done is actually hostage our people by withholding their pay.
"That is a form of slavery. If you take a man's money away from him he is subject to whatever it is that you to do."
The workers at Melia must be careful and not allow the leaders of the union to lead them to unemployment. If there is a legal agreement and the hotel, via that agreement, should extend the 15 percent gratuity to the workers then Baha Mar should live up to the agreement until it concludes. However, if the extension of gratuities is a matter under the control of the company, the workers should embrace the new norm.
The Bahamas has a weak economy with high unemployment. Baha Mar is the only hope during this five-year political term for that jobless number to fall - and Baha Mar is struggling to open and get started.
With a competitive tourism market in the region, The Bahamas has to find ways to get more competitive. We are an expensive destination. The resort appears to be trying to make its offerings more enticing to guests. This includes doing away with the mandatory 15 percent gratuity. If this lowering of the cost of the destination works and helps make Melia more attractive, that decision will help the workers keep their jobs.
Bahamian workers must understand that what used to be may no longer be possible. The government just ushered in the largest tax increase in modern Bahamian history via value-added tax. Businesses are now being forced to cut costs and find new ways of being competitive to adjust to this new situation. Workers who are employed may have to renegotiate some of the benefits they used to receive in order to keep their jobs.
If the workers at Melia strike and the resort is so harmed that some of them have to be let go, the leaders of the hotel union will still be employed and will still receive their salaries. The workers should be smart and urge their representatives to come to an agreement with the resort that allows the business to remain competitive while also preserving employment. Striking in this economic climate makes no sense.

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