THURSDAY MORNING UPDATE: Members of the Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union (BHCAWU) staged a protest at the Sidney Poitier Bridge this morning.

FROM EARLIER:

By JADE RUSSELL

Tribune Staff Reporter

jrussell@tribunemedia.net

MEMBERS of the Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union (BHCAWU) plan to hold a potentially disruptive protest at the Sidney Poitier Bridge this morning.

Their failed efforts to get an eight per cent increase in their salary is prompting the protest.

Other trade unions, including the Bahamas National Alliance of Trade Union Congress (BNATUC) and the Bahamas Taxicab Union (BTU), plan to stand in solidarity with the hotel union this morning, The Tribune was told.

Asked if the hotel union planned to block off the Sidney Poitier Bridge, one hotel member who spoke anonymously because they were not authorised to speak on behalf of the union said it “will do whatever it takes.”

The disruption follows earlier threats of action from the taxi union, which pledged a battle against Atlantis over their concerns.

Wesley Ferguson, the union’s president, told Tribune Business that his members are “not having it in 2024” as he asserted that Atlantis’ track record of having “lost all” previous confrontations with the taxi drivers will continue.

“It seems as if all they want to do is re-group and come back at it at a different angle, but whatever angle Atlantis chooses to come with, the BTCU is not having it in 2024,” he declared. “Because in this day and time it is barbaric when you are going to inconvenience tourists who come from the cruise ship.”

Last July, the BHCAWU protested in front of the Department of Labour after Atlantis fired one of its shop stewards.