Hundreds of teachers yesterday agreed to hold a strike vote, Bahamas Union of Teachers (BUT) President Belinda Wilson claimed yesterday, although no evidence was provided to confirm the numbers.
"We're trying our best not for it to go this far, but sometimes like my parents say, when you can't hear, you'll feel," she told reporters at BUT headquarters on Bethel Avenue.
"If the majority of the members say strike, then we're going to hit the streets."
Wilson said a date for the strike vote will be determined by next week.
In the meantime, she said she will write to the director of labor requesting that the Department of Labour oversee the vote.
Wilson noted that if the strike vote passes, a 16-day cooling off period is required.
"The 16-day cooling off period is an opportunity for the government to right the wrongs," she said.
"We hope that cooler heads will prevail... We hope that the government will use wisdom.
"We hope that the prime minister would intervene and give instructions to his subordinate ministers so that we could avoid all of these problems.
"We are going to send the additional information to the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Geneva, Switzerland, and we're asking for the ILO to send a group down to do conciliation and to intervene."
The BUT has already communicated to the ILO on denial of access to school campuses for the union and health and safety concerns at Stephen Dillet and Uriah McPhee primary schools, according to Wilson.
Those are just some of the concerns the BUT says it has with the Ministry of Education.
Minister of Education Jerome Fitzgerald has previously said the BUT will only be allowed on campuses during after-school hours, or in the case of an emergency.
But Wilson insists the Ministry of Education cannot deny the union access during school hours. She said that is a "basic and fundamental" concern.
She likened the barring of executives to security officers barring a doctor from entering the Accident and Emergency section of a hospital.
"The school is an extension of our workplace because our members are there...It's union busting," she said.
As it relates to the health and safety concerns, Fitzgerald said the ministry has spent over $700,000 on repairs to both schools.
But Wilson said the union remains concerned. She said the union met with various education and government officials in the last two months, including the prime minister.
However, she said meetings have been fruitless.
Fitzgerald told The Nassau Guardian on Sunday that the union wants to threaten and bully the government to get its own way instead of resolving disputes through the right process.
"I think it's unfortunate, and I think it's unnecessary," he said. "In many cases, it's illogical as well because it really has nothing to do with pay or benefits or rights of teachers.
"The issues which they are raising really don't impact [the] members. Issues which did involve the teachers, I think we have addressed to a great extent."
On November 6, the BUT asked all teachers who normally participate in after-school activities to end their participation in those activities.

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