12pm UPDATE: Sloane Smith, vice president of the Bahamas Customs, Immigration and Allied Workers Union speaks this morning on the Supreme Court Injunction.

By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

THE Trade Union Congress is expected to continue strike action today, despite claims by Director of Labour Robert Farquharson and Labour Minister Shane Gibson that the industrial action was “illegal” and “unwarranted”.

TUC President Obie Ferguson told The Tribune that the action was “legal and fair” and will last “as long it takes” until his union members‘ needs are met.

Representatives from the organisations that fall under the TUC, including Customs and Immigration and the Nurses union, walked off their jobs around 8:30am yesterday in protest against “the government’s failure to address their issues”.

Despite claims that “thousands” of TUC members would have participated in a “massive strike” to “shut the country down”, only around 250 people in New Providence participated in yesterday’s strike.

However, Mr Ferguson said as the days pass the numbers will continue to grow and yesterday’s strike was just “a small taste” of what is expected to come.

“Today is a day that is designed for workers of the Bahamas,” Mr Ferguson said. “This is a critical day and we shall be heard. We have a legitimate right to do what we are doing today, the strike is legal. No matter what you hear, no matter what they say the strike is legal. As it relates to the nurses, we had a poll, the nurses voted, the minister signed the certificate, the certificate was issued. Strike in the Bahamas is legal. What is illegal is if it was done contrary to the law and it was not,” Mr Ferguson said.

“It is a criminal offence for them to not sit down and talk with us, so how can the Director of Labour or the minister refer crime to a civil tribunal to hear? That would be a first in the country – the constitution does not provide for it nor does the Industrial Act . So to suggest that the strike is illegal and workers should not participate is taking us back decades. These people are frustrated with the lingering issues that for some goes back years. The government did not listen before, hopefully they will listen now.

Jannah Khalfani, president of the nurses union, said more than 1,000 of her members will not “go anywhere near the hospital” unless the government agrees to meet the demands. She said she is “sick and tired” of the nurses, who she called “the heart beat of the nation”, being disrespected and treated poorly.

“We have been talking about this for a long time to the point that I am just sick and tired of talking about it now and because I am sick and tired of talking,” Mrs Khalfani said,

“we decided to take this action along with the TUC and our other affiliate members in the TUC. We are asking for things that ought to have already happened a long time ago. We are not asking for the sky. Give me some benefit insurance for the nurses who are going to do flight services, for the nurses who are going on the boat, the cruise ships and to the islands.

“If you are not going to promote a nurse who is qualified, which they are because you have to enter nursing with a bachelor’s degree, I am saying if you are not going to have a promotional exercise in seven years and that nurse has been working for 20 odd years, give that nurse some benefits. Do you find that unreasonable, because I don’t.”

Sloan Smith, vice president of the Bahamas Customs, Immigration and Allied Workers Union, said after several failed meetings with the government his members “have had enough” and “no customs or immigration officer will return to work until their demands are met”.

“The fact that we are out here speaks volumes of government and its unwillingness to work in good faith. In 2012, we were trying to talk with the government to come to an agreement with increase in salaries. That has not happened. We pretty much wasted a lot of time sitting at the table and now we are here.

“These workers have bills. They are saying to the government ‘we want you to solve the issue of salaries with us, we want you to solve the issues’. So this is why we are here and we will be out here as long as it takes.”

The TUC represents 26 unions and has a collective membership of about 15,000 workers.