By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

LESLIE Miller, Bahamas Electricity Corporation Executive Chairman, yesterday accused the Bahamas Electrical Workers Union of using intimidation tactics by reportedly retaining a law firm to sue him as tensions mount over Mr Miller’s refusal to sign a negotiated industrial agreement with the union.

Mr Miller also claimed that Bahamas Telecommunications Company Ltd (BTC) employees were leaking personal information from cell phone users to damage his character.

He was referring to a voicemail recording that has been circulating on social media for the past few days in which Mr Miller’s voice can be heard belligerently leaving messages for an unnamed BEC employee.

However, Bernard Evans, president of the Bahamas Communications and Public Officers Union (BCPOU), refuted the claims saying he would “put his head on the chopping block” to defend BTC employees.

The exchange between Mr Evans and Mr Miller took place on 96.9 FM’s “Let’s Talk Live” radio talk show.

“I had a conversation with a gentleman who works for us in Abaco, a buddy of mine,” Mr Miller said as he explained the voicemail message. “We had a deal. He wanted something done for him and we gave him a break and gave him a position. He said he needed a car (and) he wasn’t entitled to a car.

“So he said ‘I am going to work a deal with you. I will send you fish and you send me meat’. He sent me fish and I sent him the meats. The second time I sent it, the (guy), he turned his phone off. So of course, me being from McCullough Corner I sent him a message on his voicemail to be a man.”

He claimed BEC union members got the voice mail and distributed it as a way to “discredit” him.

“That (was) a man-to-man conversation that had nothing to do with BEC. (Someone) sent it to a friend of mine first. Then on Monday I got a call from one of the major leading law firms in this country that some of them went to the law firm with this same message.

“So I called the (fellow). He said a (man allegedly) from BTC went into his phone and gave him all of his messages, in fact a friend of mine showed me how it could be done.”

Shooting back at Mr Miller’s claims, Mr Evans said what the Tall Pines MP had described in his account of what happened was completely impossible.

He said: “Anyone who has an account with BTC and for some reason they lose their password there is a procedure where they go in (that is) not (done) over the phone. They answer a few questions that were prearranged prior to getting their pin for that same purpose.

“That same (voicemail) that is circulating on social media I could hear someone retrieving their own voice messages and clearing down messages. That is a message sent to someone. That is not a message that was released by BTC.”

BEWU President Paul Maynard told The Tribune last night that the union had not retained an attorney to sue Mr Miller.

“I don’t have the time or day for that. Tell Mr Miller get lost. No one has the time for that. On a good day I don’t have Miller to study,” he said.