Although aware of the government's financial straits, many trade union leaders are forced to use pressure tactics to get benefits that union members have been promised, Bahamas Public Services Union (BPSU) President John Pinder said yesterday.
Pinder, who is also the newly elected leader of the National Congress of Trade Unions of The Bahamas (NCTUB), was asked to respond to criticism of recent threats of industrial action made by some unions if government does not meet their demands.
The government has urged trade union leaders to be patient and to be aware of the state of public finances, namely rising public debt and underperforming government revenue.
"A lot of times they don't understand. Governments and a lot of employers only understand pressure," he said yesterday. "As trade union leaders, we try to avoid reaching this point where you have all this industrial unrest, and you have to carry on in such a manner."
Hundreds of teachers demonstrated outside the House of Assembly last Wednesday over what the Bahamas Union of Teachers (BUT) called a gamut of unresolved issues.
The protest came even though the government has paid educators $1 million of the $4.5 million that was owed to them and has promised to pay the rest in coming months.
BUT President Belinda Wilson said Education Minister Jerome Fitzgerald has failed to address major breaches, namely the union's inability to access school campuses and post notices on school boards.
Last week, the Bahamas Electrical Workers Union (BEWU) said it would order an immediate strike if one employee's salary is adjusted, eliminating a sick pay benefit.
Yesterday, the union said it would hold off on the threat, after Minister of Works Philip Brave Davis said the status quo would remain.
Last month, the Bahamas Customs Immigration and Allied Workers Union (BCIAWU) threatened to take a strike vote if the government does not provide medical insurance coverage for non-uniformed customs and immigration employees.
Pinder said while the government is trying to curb recurrent expenditure, trade union leaders must look out for their members. "When you try to have pity on the government's financial situation, not all the time your membership understands that," he said.
"Because when they (civil servants) see the government doing other things, buying cars and traveling exorbitantly and all of that, which is necessary for the government, they don't understand that.
All they see is plenty money being spent, and we can't get ours.
"Persons need monies to pay their bills.
They want the government to remember that and to have some compassion on them and make good on hazard pay and all the other things they owe these persons.
"If we could get them more committed, if they could prioritize their spending more, then I believe it will be a win, win situation for all of us." Before the 2012 election, Prime Minister Perry Christie pledged that a Progressive Liberal Party government would resolve outstanding union issues.
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