By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

THE Trades Union Congress's (TUC) president yesterday slammed the labour movement's non-inclusion in ongoing WTO consultations as "a travesty" and "sign of backward thinking".

Obie Ferguson, speaking as the Government kickstarted a fortnight-long series of consultations with the business community, told Tribune Business he cannot "understand the logic" behind the failure to invite trade union representatives.

Arguing that the unions represent a key "factor of production" that stands to be heavily impacted by the Bahamas' upcoming accession to full World Trade Organisation (WTO) membership, Mr Ferguson said they had already protested their seeming exclusion to Dion Foulkes, minister of labour.

Describing his "big time" disappointment, Mr Ferguson said the TUC had sought to educate Bahamians on the potential impacts from WTO and other rules-based, liberalised trading regimes from 2003 when it organised a major international conference on the topic.

"Fifteen years later the Government is doing the very same thing, and they did not invite one union in the country," he told Tribune Business. "We were the ones in 2003 who did the work. I just find it amazing that we have not been briefed, we have not been notified, we were just left out.

"I don't understand the logic of it. Not one trade union, the TUC or the National Congress of Trade Unions (NCTU) have been invited. Maybe there's a reason. But labour is a major factor of production. Any serious planning must include labour; in this case, labour representatives."

Bahamian workers and their employers will both have to operate within the rules established by the Bahamas' WTO terms of accession, which will have to be negotiated by the Government in talks with members of a working party formed from all nations that have an interest in trading with this country - the likes of the US, Canada, China, the UK, European Union (EU) and CARICOM member states.

The Government likely wants to obtain feedback and recommendations from the private sector first because this is critical to forming the Bahamas' initial WTO accession 'offer' on the terms of its accession.

While the trade unions and organised labour will likely be brought into the process later, Mr Ferguson said the movement had made its feelings plain to the Minister of Labour over its exclusion from the next fortnight's consultations.

"How can serious real planning be done when the entire labour movement is excluded?" he blasted to Tribune Business.

"We met with the Minister of Labour and expressed to him our disappointment over what was published in the paper, effectively excluding all trade unions in the Commonwealth of the Bahamas.

"That's a travesty. That's an indication of backward thinking. If the Tripartite Council is supposed to be functioning and doing the job it was intended to do, it's almost impossible to plan a series of WTO consultations without the participation of the unions.

"We made our presence felt to the Minister," Mr Ferguson continued. "To invite everybody except us, and we represent the labour force, both organised and non-organised, we say it's really a travesty.

"Now we are back to square one. We are not a part of it. Obviously we weren't taken into consideration. I think the Government should allow the trade union movement to become part of the process. I think it makes sense."