By ANNELIA NIXON

Tribune Business Reporter

anixon@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas Taxi Cab Union (BTCU) yesterday said it expects “to turn up the heat in short order” to advocate for itself and as it prepares for industrial action with other Trades Union Congress (TUC) affiliates.

Speaking after Obie Ferguson KC’s threat of industrial action over long-standing grievances that the Bahamas General Workers Union (BGWU) has with the Bahamas Agricultural and Industrial Corporation (BAIC), other TUC members pledged their support to stand in solidarity if the issues are not resolved.

Mr Ferguson, the TUC president, said essential workers such as doctors, nurses and taxi drivers will stand with their fellow TUC affiliates. “We are part of the Trade Union Congress and our support is with the Congress,” BTCU president, Tyrone Butler, said.

“So any harm to one affiliate member is a harm to all. And so there’s no division between us and the members of the Trades Union Congress. Whatever support we can give, we will do our best to support our colleagues because we are one Congress. So it’s not for us to be on the sideline when our brothers are out on the street.

“We don’t have a singular strategy that we use. We look at what is in front of us. So once we would have gotten all the information from Mr Ferguson on what the issue is, and what level that we want to commence any action, that would determine what it would look like,” Mr Butler added.

“So it would be premature to say that we’re going to stop here or stop there, or we’re going to do this. We would have to look at the whole scope of what the industrial action will entail, and then we will strategise our response based on that.”

Mr Butler, speaking on behalf of his union specifically, noted the long-standing issues taxi drivers have faced regarding livery drivers allegedly “operating illegally”. He also called out hotel properties for allowing livery drivers to “steal” jobs from taxi drivers. Mr Butler said he and his members’ patience has grown thin, and they are working with Mr Ferguson to “see some movement on those issues”.

“We’re not going to sit around and wait for the minister or any other agencies to string us along with promises. We’ve been given a lot of empty promises up to this point, and we’ve seen the results. Our patience basically run out with this government and its response to a lot of the things that we’ve been asking them to address. And so we’re at that point now where we expect to turn up the heat in short order,” Mr Butler asserted.

“It’s not just the Government that we have issues with. We have issues with singular properties, hotel properties also, and the airport, and so all of these areas that are challenging to us we’re going to seek to do what we need to do to have them addressed one way or the other. I mean, we’re not going to sit around and allow persons to just want to have meeting and talk and talk and no results.”

Mr Butler reiterated that livery drivers operating in a space reserved for taxi drivers is against the law. “One of the things the Government and all of these property operators have to understand is taxi drivers are part of the landscape of the visitor vacation experience,” he said. 

“Transportation to and from certain destinations that is designated for taxis should be done by taxis, not by unscrupulous drivers who were given permission by authorities to operate contrary to what the law says. And so that’s the biggest problem.”

Hinsey McKenzie, the Bahamas Air Traffic Controllers Union’s (BATCU) president, added that his union has “no problem at all” standing with the BGWU especially since it also has unresolved grievances.

“Yes, we would, because we have issues as well,” Mr Mckenzie added. “Because remember, the access road is one of our main contentions. It hasn’t been resolved as yet. Our industrial agreement has expired since May, and we haven’t been called to the table as yet.

“Other issues are still there. We have salary anomalies that haven’t been dealt with as yet. So it’s a whole bunch of issues that we have as well. So it isn’t only the general workers having issue. We have issues too.”

Bahamas Nurses Union president, Muriel Lightbourn, said: “If there comes a time that we have to stand together in solidarity, that’s what we would do.” However, she said she “pray that that’s something that don’t have to happen”.

The Consultant Physicians Staff Association (CPSA) president, Dr Charelle Lockhart, said that while she has not yet had the opportunity to speak with Mr Ferguson, as part of the TUC “that would be a part of our conversation”. She added: “With all our other actions, we have stood together.”