A Supreme Court judge last night declared that the Bahamas Public Services Union (BPSU) is in breach of the Industrial Relations Act by calling a strike among its members who are workers at airports in the country.
The industrial action caused operations at Lynden Pindling International Airport (LPIA) to slow to a crawl yesterday, resulting in great frustration among passengers, as the workers took action over the government’s failure to conclude an industrial agreement and provide money union officials say is owed.
About 90 percent of the 200-plus BPSU members at LPIA, including non-management staff like firefighters, security and screening staff, plus 107 employees at 17 airports around the Family Islands, did not report to work, according to Director of Labour Robert Farquharson.
Farquharson confirmed to The Nassau Guardian early this morning that Justice Denise Lewis-Johnson granted the Airport Authority an interlocutory injunction against the BPSU at 9:47 last night.
The judge granted a declaration that the union is in breach of sections 76 and 77 of the act by calling, organizing, inducing, inciting or procuring its officers and/or members to continue to participate in industrial action amounting to a strike.
The judge also granted an order restraining the BPSU from continuing to contravene the act by having the workers refuse to report to work when scheduled to do so, or leave their employment or otherwise participate in any form of industrial action.
Additionally, she ordered the BPSU to instruct its officers and members to return to work, and not to take part in or continue to take part in any form of industrial action.
Farquharson said, “This means that anyone who continues in industrial unrest will not only be accountable to the Airport Authority for disciplinary reasons, but will also be accountable to the court as this would be seen as a direct and wilful act against the Supreme Court of The Bahamas.”
It was not immediately clear whether the BPSU and its members intend to abide by the ruling. BPSU President Kimsley Ferguson was not reachable this morning.
The action yesterday had a significant impact on operations at LPIA.
Around 2 p.m., hundreds of passengers were on long lines in the international departures terminal with many of them expressing frustrations and worries that they would miss their flights.
At the end of the evening, Managing Director of the Bahamas Airport Authority (BAA) Peter Rutherford reported, “There were some late afternoon flights that were affected and caused an above average number of customers to miss their flights.”
Rutherford said 4,900 passengers passed through LPIA yesterday.
Early in the day, Minister of Labour Keith Bell said the action taken at the airports was illegal.
Bell said that on July 27, 2020, then-Minister of Labour Dion Foulkes issued a strike certificate to the BPSU for its members employed at the Airport Authority.
He advised that on February 27, 2021, Foulkes, in accordance with Section 76 of the Industrial Relations Act, referred the dispute to the Bahamas Industrial Tribunal.
“At 8:12 a.m. this morning, Mr. Ferguson was advised by the director of labor that the matter regarding the trade dispute on outstanding payments owed to the members of the BPSU employed by the Airport Authority was referred to the Industrial Tribunal and as such any industrial action, including a planned sick out, taken by the BPSU, could be deemed illegal,” Bell said.
“In that conversation, President Ferguson acknowledged the advice given by Director Farquharson.”
Bell asked the BPSU workers to “return to work forthwith”.
“As minister of labor, I am now prepared to intervene personally in this matter along with Director Farquharson and senior officers within my ministry and formally invite the president of the BPSU to the bargaining table to resolve all outstanding matters amicably,” he said.
Bell said the BAA management had a copy of a voice note from Ferguson purportedly instructing BPSU members who work for the BAA to “go to the doctor and obtain sick certificates for five days and lock the place down”.
Bell pointed out that the failure to return to work could expose BPSU members to a $200 fine and/or three months in prison. The law allows a $10,000 fine for a union that contravenes the Industrial Tribunal stay.
The minister sidestepped questions on whether the government would push for the application of these penalties.
‘Strong-arm tactic’
Deputy Prime Minister Chester Cooper, who has Cabinet responsibility for tourism and aviation, was at LPIA early yesterday and reiterated that the referral of the matter to the tribunal meant that the industrial action should cease.
“We are not going to take this laying down,” he said.
“We are going to employ all of what’s available to us under the law to ensure that the residents and our tourists and traveling public are not adversely impacted.”
Farquharson said since September 2021, the government has paid $851,000 in money owed to BPSU members at the BAA, primarily those who are employed on the Family Islands.
“There are some additional monies that are owed,” he said.
“The government was in discussion with Mr. Ferguson and the executives of the BPSU last week with the financial secretary with the view to identifying those monies owed and having them paid at the earliest possible opportunity.
“There are ongoing discussions and we formally invite Mr. Ferguson and his team to the bargaining table to identify those issues, to identify the monies owed, and see how quickly the government can allocate the funding to facilitate these monies that are outstanding for some time.”
Cooper added that it was “most unfortunate” that the United States (US) Transportation Security Administration (TSA) happened to be inspecting LPIA yesterday.
The TSA is an agency of the US Department of Homeland Security that has authority over the security of transportation systems within and connecting to the US.
“The timing of this action could not be worse,” Cooper said.
“But we have opportunity to demonstrate that, under pressure, we can put in place a contingency plan to ensure the smooth operations of the airports across the country.”
In relation to the outstanding matter with the BPSU, Cooper said, “We thought we were making significant progress over the past eight or nine months.
“We asked for compromise, we asked for patience on behalf of the Bahamian people. The action today, we think, is a strong-arm tactic, and we are going to do what’s best for the Bahamian people.
“We will not allow the interests of a few to trump the interests of the wider Bahamian community … We will negotiate in good faith, but we will not be held over a barrel. We will not be strong-armed. We will do what’s in the interests of the Bahamian people; all of the Bahamian people.”
Meanwhile, Gladstone Adderley, president of the Airport Airline and Allied Workers Union (AAAWU) – which represents Bahamasair and Nassau Flight Services – said the industrial action was not an AAAWU action. Nonetheless, Adderley confirmed that his union is also pushing to conclude industrial agreements.
“We have two we are dealing with,” he said.
“… They deferred everything that deals with money, but we are about to start negotiating with the articles pertaining to the flight attendants. And then, I guess, they’ll come to us with the money.
“I wouldn’t go as far as saying [we are satisfied] because we haven’t talked about money yet. They keep deferring everything. Plus, Nassau Flight Services keeps prolonging and prolonging when we are going to start with their negotiations. They say they are having a board meeting today (Monday) to determine when they are going to start negotiations.”
Last evening, Rutherford, the managing director of the Airport Authority, said LPIA was preparing for a possible continuance of the BPSU industrial action today.
“However,” he said, “we are hopeful that tomorrow (Tuesday) we have a full contingent on hand, but planning for the worst, nonetheless.”
Rutherford’s comment was made prior to the judge issuing the injunction against the union.
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