• Union leader hopes buyer would be more focused on the hotel industry

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

Hotel union president Darrin Woods said Brookfield Asset Management selling the Atlantis Paradise Island resort to a reputable hotel chain would “bring stability,” to the property.

Mr Woods, the Bahamas Hotel, Catering and Allied Workers Union’s (BHCAWU) chief told Tribune Business that Brookfield is an asset management company, not a hospitality driven company and because of that it led to a lot of conflicts on the property because they didn’t understand the nature of the hospitality industry and its workers.

He said: “Everything has a season and their season was to buy the property, make it whole and prepare it for a sale.

“With a hotel brand coming in it can be more focused on the industry and the development to get to it to the next level. And so based on what Brookfield would have done over the years would have been to prepare the property for a buyer at the end of the day.”

Brookfield Asset Management bought the Atlantis from the Kerzner Group in 2012 for $175m, has now been reported as considering selling the property for as much as $2.5bn. This is the second attempt for Brookfield to sell the property as their first attempt in 2019 was aborted when the pandemic settled in.

Mr Woods, admitting the Brookfield arrangement would “always have been short term” in his eyes, thinks a hotel brand with years of experience would be better to take over the property now that the pandemic is over and the property is back to being profitable.

Mr Woods said: “We don’t really meet with Brookfield, but their representatives have given us some challenges. For those challenges, we have been able to work through it. You are always going to have to work through things and it’s not always going to be a bed of roses, but at the end of the day, it might have been acrimonious, but we’re working through whatever issues that we had.”

The relationship between the BHCAWU and the Atlantis property management has had its ups and downs. In July, the union protested in front of the Department of Labour against Atlantis firing one of its shop stewards, something Atlantis had “no authority to do”, Mr Woods said at the time.

The BHCAWU is also in the middle of negotiations with the Bahamas Hotel and Restaurant Employers Association (BHREA) on a new industrial agreement for all of the properties under their coverage. Atlantis has representation on the BHREA.

“There may be one or two issues that are outstanding and there are times people become entrenched in their position and it results in some actions being taken on both sides,” Mr Woods said.

He added: “For the most part, we’ve been able to sit and talk, even if we agree to disagree and do what is necessary to get to an agreement.”

The union is “just there” with the BHREA on finalising a new industrial agreement and met on Friday to hammer out the final details and will make an announcement within the next few weeks.