You can't compare Cuba to the USSR. First of all, there is geography. Moscow is at least a 9 hour expensive flight around a couple of thousand dollars. A flight to Cuba is a few hundred and a short flight.

The Russian culture is nothing to write home about, and you can't dress it up. Cuba has sex, music, food, cigars, and a whole range of activities from windsurfing to bass fishing in their lakes. Cuba has marvelous architecture, whereas Moscow is full of Stalin wedding-cake buildings (Saint Peterburg excepted but it is on swamp on the Neva River) that are depressing as hell. Russian food is stolid and uninviting whereas Cuban food is exciting. Cuba is tropical and Russia is not. Perfect for a winter vacation close to home.

Most Canadians who travel to escape the winter have already been to Cuba and the DR because they are cheap holidays.

Co-sign! Sandals told Crisco Butt weeks ago of their intent, and did the Prime Minister do anything or say anything ?????? A big resounding no! And when asked by the press what he thought of this, his first response was to run and hide. No Comment! What does that tell you? The Prime Minister is complicit in this. Still waiting for his statement and acknowledgement that he knew about this.

AND ... this is the big AND .... Sandals didn't even answer Shames letter's from his ministry and they ignored the union bosses. who did they send letters to? The Attorney General's Office. They were preemptively filing their defense.

Sandals has 20 other properties. They already have a digital strategy in place to steer away tourists from Nassau for the "renovations".

What Obie Ferguson is most worried about is the potential loss of his own income when his union dribbles out of existence and he may actually have to push a mop or carry a bag for a living.

If there is no signed union agreement, and there wasn't, there is nothing to prevent a company from declaring all workers redundant every week.

You notice how Sandals ignores Shame's letters and the letters from his ministry. They informed the Attorney General and not him, as a direct snub to him.

As for amending the employment laws, it will just drive out more employers. It is already an unfriendly place to do business.

Bahamians will be eating pigeons and coconuts again, and it een long.

Co-sign.

This is the very first sign that I have seen that indicates that you are human.

It's the Golden Rule, and it is applicable all over the world.

>Dems dat have da gold, makes da rules.

Fast track construction workers? Wonder who they are and if they can be hired for Baha Mar?

Gotta hand it to Sandals. By not rehiring old employees, they can put anti-union policies that are legal only if is in place before any organising activity takes place. And all new hires come under that policy. You can bet that the few remaining workers have never expressed organising tendencies. It was never a union shop. And with an entirely new work crew, it never will be. And if Obie or TUC tries to unionise again, there will more renovations.

Interestingly enough, the closure won't affect Sandals at all. Over 80% of the bookings are done online, and they are shown the Sandals brand with 20 other Sandals locations that are glitzier than Nassau. You can re-direct Nassau customers to better Sandals resorts using the website booking service by offering them a discount.

Getting rid of all of the workers helps with the court case as well. Who is going to testify for Obie and TUC if you are hoping to get your job back? Brilliant.

Unions are a curse upon the economy and workers of the Bahamas. Union leaders (like Shame Gibson used to be -- and before that, he was Radio Shack clerk), make a good living off the labour of hardworking Bahamians who pay for a lifestyle for union bosses that they themselves can't afford.

At Sandals, the IT is provided in Florida by San Services, a captive IT consulting firm specifically for Sandals. The junior Java developers are paid USD $80,000 per year. Their database guys make $100,000+. Pity. The economic offset alone would be around $50 million in the local economy if those jobs came here. And, big doors swing on small hinges. It might have been the thin edge of the wedge for the creation of a knowledge industry segment of the economy.

Sandals does Business Intelligence -- analyzing data on a daily basis. They were losing market share in the Bahamas to Atlantis and Disney (various - cruise, tourist destinations). They suffered downturns in their key metrics -- customer demographics, brand loyalty etc.

With the focus on experiential tourism, there is nothing in the Bahamas to match, say the Sandals waterpark in Jamaica.

With the egregious behaviour by the unions, Shame Gibson etc, these things may be the straw that breaks the camel's back. Gibson was saying something like: "Can you imagine declaring redundancies a few weeks before school starts?". He needs a reminder that businesses in the Bahamas are not here to provide jobs. They are here to make a profit. That is the sole reason for a business.

All this to say -- I wouldn't bet on Sandals staying in Nassau.

The real problem is not illegal immigration. The real problem is a monolithic economy in two shrinking economic sectors with overpopulation of people who are functionally illiterate and incapable of earning enough money to support the children that they have out of wedlock.