Man this is getting juicier by the day. This government is nothng more than a train wreck. Ya'll better deal with these crooks and swindlers come next election or this country will perish.

It's all clear to anyone who can see! It's the Golden Rule -- he who has the gold, makes the rule!

Does this also mean that government will discontinue its effort to pass a law prosecuting employers who terminate employees before notifying the government first/ How they now come to realize how much they were intruding on the freedoms and rights of employees without realizing that, at the end of the day employers hold the key to their businesses and will have the last say? Even if it means, in the case of foreign owned businesses, that they pack up and move away. The fact is that is is always a sad and distressing occasion for anyone to lose their job. (we see what is the regular outcome in the US when disgruntled workers get fired). But i The government has put National Insurance in place as a safety net for when this happens. Unions should be the ones fighting for their workers and not the government . At least not to the extent of taking workers to court. Both the government and the unions most come to realize that long term job security in the tourism industry is no longer a given. Employers are willing to sacrifice long term, hard working dedicated workers for more youthful, energized and active ones. So now its government and the unions' prerogative to fight for more worker benefits in the short term and also to ensure that more worker insurance benefits are garnered in the short term. Not to fight the employer in court after the fact. Yes eventually another problem will develop where many persons in their 40's and 50's find themselves unemployed and unemployable in the hotel/tourism industry. But if the tourism product demands more youthful employees, the question then is how to fix that.

Will the Tribune take down comments to this story as well as it is a "sensitive" issue that they afraid of getting sued by the players involved?????? ............ SMDH

If this doesn't cause the union to 'shut down' the country then nothing will and the union leaders should resign in shame.

This government needs a 50 thousand man protest in order to get the message that what they are doing is WRONG!!!!

Agreed ............. this should be the last straw for right-thinking Bahamians who want to preserve the little that we have left to call authentically Bahamian .......... This calls for a General Strike like 1958

Comrades! With each 'how and why in the hell did they decide do and then publicly admit to doing it' headline coming from the most senior members this PLP Cabinet, the 2017 General Election may just be reshaping to be a reversal of the Pindling strong in popularity years, and as it was expected to happen during Papa Hubert's 15 years as Prime Minister, when it was a guaranteed given that if Papa Hubert, didn't win a General Election, the victory would by default be handed over to his former Law Partner and close friend PLP Official Opposition Leader Christie.
Is there good reason to start giving weight to why come the 2017 General, the Political Strategists, Pollsters and Pundits, may have to admit privately that the old established given that the 2017 General Election Results will alter the structured thinking that makes the Two-Party System inevitable?
Comrades, there will be a new Government sworn-in after the 2017 General's, final votes are officially announced, but of and from what political associations will its elected members be made-up. A high possibility there will be a minority coalition government with Minis as PM.....or will Minnis, be forced to make his exit, before the 2017 General's bell gets rungs?

Agreed ........... we may be going down the road of 1967 again ........ a coalition government is reasonably possible in 2017 ...... five DNA and/or independent MPs will throw the whole Parliament into a tizzy

Comrade Sheeprunner2, if the Red Party can't be victories for the House of Assembly seats in Long Island, Montagu and both Abaco's Cooper's Town and Marsh Harbour seats and three seats out Grand Bahama, they cannot possibly expect to win a single seat elsewhere out of Nassau, or the Family Islands? And, with so many old disgruntled with the party UBP voters, it's an illusion to think the old UBP seats will remain Red Party fortified.

Tal .............. why do you insist on tagging the FNM with the UBP???? ....... Should we tag the PLP with the MLK Civil Rights movement??????

That is how hilarious your comments appear in 2016

Comrade, does Montagu's Richard rungs a loud UBP Bell enough for your ears, and if not Richard is but only one who came along as Montagu's MP and to other UBP voting block strongholds, after Pindling, and even Sir Stafford, had long made their permanent exits from the local political scene. Even Papa Hubert and "Big Bad" Brad, were "on-loan" UBP's? Just that Brad has lasted PLP longer?

OK, Tal ........... I give you Montagu ............. but how do you reconcile that the most backward, undeveloped, dependent parts of this country are the most loyal PLP supporters?????? ........ start with Centreville, Fox Hill, Cat Island, Acklins and South Andros .......... I await your sage comeback comment

Comrade Sheeprunner12, why the PLP and we must also include the Red Movement MP's, continue to emerge victories election after election from such third world living standards constituencies is something you will need to go ask a physiologist to study why core voters are more likely to remain loyal “no matter how badly" their constituencies are underrepresented. It’s possibly a constituency hereditary disorder from their UBP representation days, would be my most honest answer to your honestly asked and most puzzling question?
Papa Hubert's, chief bragging accomplishment as Cooper's Town's long-serving MP, is how he successfully brought the toilets in from his constituents backyards, into the peoples main Houses....and no, I just didn't make that Papa Hubert one up...he actually has repeated it on many occasions....Honestly, I swear!

Kaching! Kaching!

The problem? Everyone on both sides of this is a worthless politician - the government and the union leaders. Everyone in that room is looking out for their own interests making declarations they know to be untrue in order to get a certain reaction from the hearers. Anyone with common sense in these matters had to recognize that the government knew of and sanctioned the layoffs beforehand, and anyone with common sense in these matters also had to recognize that these union leaders were making "shut down the country" comments in front of cameras, but were playing with these government officials behind closed doors. Now they are crying foul.

This is the "END" for the PLP and Sandals in the Bahamas! This can very be the fuse that "muck-up thee wurks" for this government. . . I told the sandals people around here that from a HR perspective that anti-social move made with those workers was "ger cost" them plenty in the long run. . .and "ger be" much more worse when it gets out to they other sites in this region. . .now this scandal in our courts! They have now succeeded in bringing all unions together to fight them. . . THIS GER LONG FER ALLA DEM!

When money talks ,people listen!

Like it was tried (talked) in the Turks and Caicos' Island and cost them $12 million by the British government for skullduggery with that government? This case making one of Jamaica's richest 8 persons look like he is back in that lil skull boat when he was a boy ferrying tourist in the harbor in JA! The Bahamas is a world class brand name. . .them back-yard business practices is seen by the world. . .this company should have done learn that lesson. . .but obviously they have not! They een hearin so dem er feel"!

Pray tell, how will the unions shutting down the country hurt Sandals??
When the dust settles the only ones hurting will be the gullible Bahamian people who will be left holding the smelly end of the big stick the unions thought to beat Sandals & the government with.

Shutting down the country has nothing to do with Sandals. It is sending a message to our Uncle Tom leaders who continue to put the foreigners' interests above those of the people the are elected to represent that they have gone too far.

If you go back and review the government's response to the cabbage beach protest, it was very telling. It clearly had the potential to blow up, all opposition forces and the unions were collectively speaking out against the government. A general strike would have this government shaking in their boots.

The issue isn't prosecuting Sandals, it's the overreach of the government.

You don't see it do you? When the dust settles. . .the two brand names in this "dust-up" is Sandals and the Bahamas! Not the workers. . .the world is on their side child from the get go! The Bahamas has no history of this kind of cooperate behavior. . .now the other guy. . .there is where the world will go "sniffing under them dress" looking for something. . .THERE THE OTHER BRAND WILL BE "PEEKED" INTO. . .now you see who will be left holding that bag. . .17 other regional sites are watching also. . .they may wonder if them others guys may be up to the kind of behavior for which them British fined $12 million for or the case in Florida they wanted to move to the Bahamas!

**............................ Government & Witch fool the unions AGAIN! ..................................**

Obie Ferguson and big John Pinder stupidly allowed themselves to be bamboozled, hoodwinked and made to look like jackass's again.

After all these years of "talking" these guys have accomplished NOTHING for their members.

Enough talk! Shut the dam country down and force this lousy, corrupt government OUT NOW!

It is amazing to me that people actually believe Obie Ferguson, a lawyer and officer of the court, did not know that this court matter was no longer a court matter before he met with government officials.

What these brain dead politicians and union leaders don't realize is that Butch and his son have had about all of the nonsense they can stomach in the Bahamas and, as a consequence, have cast their eyes to the southwest of us, towards the re-awakening jewel of the Caribbean: Cuba.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. . .right into the heart of a people who cut they eye-teeth on Maio, Marxz, Rand and Tolstoy. . .and Castro. . .they went after Fulgencio Batista and his economic policies which were the same as Sandals . . . ignoring the ruling of courts against workers and being supported by the government. . .a people who depended on its government for over 40 years! The opening of Russia showed the rest of the world that "opening" a communist nation which were under the patronage of the government for so long is a population who are not too hard working and has high expectation for getting something for nothing! Sandals will never make such anti-workers decisions in a nation that is 'looking for something for nothing". . .one who has a history (late as Granada in 1989) of uprising against leaders who exploit the people. . .THE CORE OF CUBAN NATIONAL THINKING. . .DESTROY ALL EXPLOITERS OF THE PEOPLE!

Yes. . .let them go to Cuba. . .I hope they do. . .

If the Reds put d'Aguular in Montague then Lughtbourn ga take St. Anne's. Trus me !

what case? smt

Is there a class one can attend if only to understand his posts

For once, the Nolli was sensibly exercised... There may be hope yet...

This ugly, devious, corrupt woman (AMG) is a real and present danger to a semblance of democracy, the rights of citizens and the welfare of employees in our country ............ she seems to be the hatchet-woman behind Perry, while he brays like an toothless ass

If find it very hard to believe that the AG went Lone Ranger on the PLP. I also find it amazing that so many of them have publicly abandoned her, weird.

You will never get an answer to this from the PM or the AG ........ so leave it be .......... hopefully there are some cellphones or computers that can be hacked to recover an info trail on this matter