Of course Bahamians do not want to do domestic work. They have taken to heart the message from the country's 'founder' Lynden Pindling that Bahamians no longer need to be in servitude.
This accounts for the generally poor customer service that is received in the service industry in particular.
The xenophobic comments that appear when ever the work permit issue is raised seem to ignore the need for ex-pats to train nationals in every country around the world, Nearly all the major countries in the world have accepted immigration to improve their knowledge.
Good luck to the Bahamas in charge of Bahamians alone.

Given the present administration's attitude to "foreigners" working in the Bahamas, are all the drill workers going to have work permits and each have a Bahamian shadowing them to learn the business. Having attempted to train Bahamians, I have serious doubts about the ability of most locals to be able to learn to work on a platform at the high degree of concentration and safety that is required in this dangerous business.
However as Fred Mitchell has said most work permits holders should be able to be replaced by 'qualified' Bahamians in a variety of jobs.
Given the fact that last year there was some celebration that students were passing exams with 'Ds' and 'Es' in math and/or English I have to have serious doubts about this minister's grasp of his own country's abilities.

****#Noting the Bahamas’ narrow tax base, and that one-off income flows from the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) privatisation and likes of Baha Mar had masked recurrent revenue weakness, Moody’s expressed huge doubt about the Government’s ability to effect a near-term turnaround.***
This is the fiscal position from which this government hopes to buy back a majority holding in BTC. This despite all the warnings from the financial ratings groups that their holdings in nationalised corporations is detrimental to the health of the economy.
We do know the reason for holding onto these corporations it is commonly called nepotism.

Yes, what we need here is an efficient Bahamian run cell phone company to give BTC some real competition! Possibly they could recruit from other Bahamian corporations like BEC and NIB. They could even get Elizabeth Thompson to look after their legal affairs and handle the union negotiations for them.
We do not need a company run by a team of aggressive Irishmen who strive for efficiency and good service.

This is the best thing that could happen. Let us get all the facts out in the open and then maybe these union leaders will see that they are backing the wrong horse. There is a well known saying "Pick your battles wisely" the unions should heed this wise advice.

Elizabeth Thompson knows she is wrong. Her union colleagues all know this. She was not fired for being a member of a trade union. Her dismissal letter was a polite way of laying her off without saying that she had showed, despite warnings, that she had a conflict of interest and had breached the company's trust.
The following is an extract from a typical "statement of corporate ethics"
.........Conflicts of Interest – Employees and their families are expected to be free from personal interests or actions, which may be in conflict with the goals of the Company. The following situations, which are not intended to be all inclusive, are considered occurrences which could cause a conflict of interest: directly or indirectly owning any interest in a supplier, engaging in a business venture which could be construed as a conflict of interest or allegiance; receiving commissions, fees, loans or gifts of value derived in any way from a supplier; divulging Company information to an unauthorized recipient; or being employed by an organization in a related field while sill be employed by The Company.
Proprietary Information – The Companys’ trade secrets or any other proprietary information must not be disclosed to any company or person outside The Company unless such disclosure is made under an approved non-disclosure agreement signed by an authorized representative of The Company and the outside party. Also, employees must protect the proprietary information of The Companys’ customers, vendors and business employees..............
Of course she can be a senior member of the union and work at BTC, just not in as a senior manager of the legal department, who has to negotiate with her own union. It is amazing that all these supporters cannot see past the ex-pat thing! They call on the government to step in, they totally forget that the Government is a 49% partner in this affair. It is always assumed that BTC is CWC, well that is wrong and if the Government would do its duty and appoint their board members then this same dismissal would have happened with the Governments approval. She had massive conflict of interest once she became vice president of her union and she was party to a lot of policy that was going to affect her union which she was unable to keep to herself. In business in other countries, she would not only have been fired with no payoff, but would have been charged with disclosing company information. Of course in the land of piracy, rum runners and drug runners she is a hero! Get your priorities straight people.

Given the cooperation that they are getting from their partners(the Bahamanian Government), if someone would like to give them their money back PLUS the millions invested in the new system, I am sure that they would be quite pleased to leave this mess.
Then the government will have to get expats in to show them how to run the new systems! That makes sense!

I understand that a whole section of this story is missing!
This person worked in the legal and regulatory department of BTC and as such would be expected to be involved in legal negotiations with the unions amongst other organisations.
As a union member this was not a problem, but when she decided to run for the Vice President of the union post, she was notified by BTC that given her senior management post, if she was elected it would be regarded at as a conflict of interest. She would no longer be in a position to negotiate with an impartial point of view.
It might be an idea if the reporter followed up on this instead of allowing subject and her lawyer to start beating their xenophobic drum in public.All these 'BTC' stories always refer to the company as being owned by CWC, people should be reminded that their share of the company is not being fully represented as the Prime Minister has omitted to appoint the Government members of the BTC board thus effectively hobbling the company's ability to run its affairs efficiently.

That would be fantastic and will never happen as it would mean moving the Bahamas way south or west in order to be in the Caribbean.
These islands are surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean. The north coast of Cuba which is south of us is an Atlantic Coast, the east coast of Florida which is west of us is also an Atlantic coast. When are people going to stop the deluding themselves that the Bahamas is a Caribbean nation? We are in the West Indies if there is the desire to be included with a group of other nations, but we are not a Caribbean Nation.
We can have the number one airport in the Atlantic islands or be one of the top three in the West Indies. Stop with the Caribbean nonsense!

I assume that the photo is not representative of the BACS group entry!!!
If it was the rest of the parade must have been dressed in suits.
If the story needs a picture then give it a representative picture.