Over the next two (2) days, the Public Service Drivers' Union, a member of the Trade Union Congress, will be holding demonstrations to protest the discriminatory labour practices in The Bahamas of Royal Bank of Canada and its affiliate companies. The schedule is as follows:

* WEDNESDAY, 9TH JULY, 2003, FROM 9 A.M. TO 11 A.M., ROYAL
BANK HOUSE, EAST HILL STREET.

* THURSDAY, 10TH JULY, 2003, FROM 9 A.M. TO 11 A.M., ROYAL
BANK, MAIN BRANCH, DOWNTOWN. (POSTPONED - SEE BELOW)


*****UPDATE & POSTPONEMENT*****

The demonstration yesterday went very well! The response from the general public, Bahamians and tourists alike, was encouraging. Media coverage was extensive (ZNS, The Nassau Guardian, The Tribune, 102.9 FM, Love 97 FM, etc., etc., etc.). Look for their reports in the coming days.

Today's demonstration was postponed due to the continuing Junkanoo parades on Bay Street. We have decided to put it off until Monday, same time. Confirmation to follow.

Originally posted by Mr. Leslie N. Moss
Over the next two (2) days, the Public Service Drivers' Union, a member of the Trade Union Congress, will be holding demonstrations to protest the discriminatory labour practices in The Bahamas of Royal Bank of Canada and its affiliate companies. The schedule is as follows:

* WEDNESDAY, 9TH JULY, 2003, FROM 9 A.M. TO 11 A.M., ROYAL
BANK HOUSE, EAST HILL STREET.

* THURSDAY, 10TH JULY, 2003, FROM 9 A.M. TO 11 A.M., ROYAL
BANK, MAIN BRANCH, DOWNTOWN.

Can you please elaborate on the “discriminatory labour practices” by RBC

Bahamianization states that qualified Bahamians are to get jobs FIRST. If not, then there should be a training programme for them so as to replace the expat getting the job. Royal doesn't do this.

Until bahamians as a people finally decide to really free themselves, then we will always be demonstrating on Bay Street about some foreign institution doing us wrong or making us second class citizens in our country. After 30 years of independence we should be owning Royal Bank, hiring and firing whomever we chose. We should be owning Atlantis on Paradise Island. We need to do a better job of empowering ourselves with the necessary tools for personel achievement and stop looking for financial salvation from foreign institutions doing business in the bahamas. I know it is easier said than done but nobody said that it could not be.

Mr. Leslie N. Moss I support you and your faction on legal and moral grounds but unfortunately I won't physically be there on Easthill St. nor Bay St. Good luck in you demonstrations. I hope that you will achieve your desires, although I have my doubts.

originally posted by Truthseeker
After 30 years of independence we should be owning Royal Bank, hiring and firing whomever we chose. We should be owning Atlantis on Paradise Island. We need to do a better job of empowering ourselves with the necessary tools for personel achievement and stop looking for financial salvation from foreign institutions doing business in the bahamas. I know it is easier said than done but nobody said that it could not be.

I agree with you on that little bit of your statement 100%.

Originally posted by Truthseeker
Until bahamians as a people finally decide to really free themselves, then we will always be demonstrating on Bay Street about some foreign institution doing us wrong or making us second class citizens in our country. After 30 years of independence we should be owning Royal Bank, hiring and firing whomever we chose. We should be owning Atlantis on Paradise Island. We need to do a better job of empowering ourselves with the necessary tools for personel achievement and stop looking for financial salvation from foreign institutions doing business in the bahamas. I know it is easier said than done but nobody said that it could not be.

Mr. Leslie N. Moss I support you and your faction on legal and moral grounds but unfortunately I won't physically be there on Easthill St. nor Bay St. Good luck in you demonstrations. I hope that you will achieve your desires, although I have my doubts.

We cant own what kursner started, but the gov should have tried to see what they could have done to get bahamians to invest before it was all payed for by kursner, maybe like with shares, so that the majority of ownership is bahamian, like with any business is supposed to be in the bahamas!

even if it was a dollar share, lots of less forunate bahamians could have cashed in on the profit they have made so far. Even if the government had the chance to put some money into it so they could later sell some shares to pay for other things the country needs, like helping upgrade certain areas of nassau where alot of bahamian families still live in shacks and get their water from dirty pumps shared by an entire neighbor hood, when visitors to nassau see the bahamas as some million dollar ellaborate vacation resort! :eek:

they see a bahamian straw vendor or band player, and think wow they live in paradise and have such a great life, when some of them live in shacks with10 other family members, with barely enough food to feed 3 or 4 of them! Island stylin in NASSAU isnt what it is cut out to be or what it used to be, but those people still look happy and thank god for what they do have, life, but the tourist would never see the reality, only that they play in a band, live with all year sun and warm weather, tax free country, reality is amiss. Nowadays money makes you happy, and money makes you really live, because without money you cant eat, or live for that matter, in our tax free country! :o

Money money money, the gov should be focusing on how to make bahamian people more money, and stop worrying about people with tint on their windows, or whether we should join the carribean community, or whether this drug dealer should be extradited (just send him away!). Money and wealth, and industry is what will make this country a first world country, and education is the start. With more bahamians earning more money, or bahamians that dont work making even some money, the crime rate in nassau will drop, shrinkage will go down, and cost of living will eventually drop also.

And, although i may have said in other messages that I havent yet found anything here to make me proud of, the bahamas has the opportunity to grow and make a mark on international economy, that will make me proud to be a bahamian, if we get more education programs, industrial start ups, the extremely poor start making money to buy bottled water, crime rate goes down in nassau (not up as it has been), neigborhood cleaning programs, etc, (people are made to retake their driving tests), enviromental issues such as blue smoke cars and old diesel vehicles are looked at closer, and bahamians are actually given jobs over foreignors and if foreign experience is needed, bahamians are trained or utilized (in more than just road work!)and still make the majority of income in the job.

There are so many ways for this still young country to make more money, and alot of it includes more education in real business and use of bahamians over hiring foreign workers.

am i rambling on here way off topic!? :-)

Originally posted by Mr. Leslie N. Moss
Bahamianization states that qualified Bahamians are to get jobs FIRST. If not, then there should be a training programme for them so as to replace the expat getting the job. Royal doesn't do this.

this should be the case in all businesses in the bahamas. If a foreignor is married to a bahamian then that is a different subject, they are a bahamian resident and some cases citizen, but hiring people from other countries to d oa jon alot of bahamians are qualified, experienced, or can be easily trained to do, then thats another subject.

Expats keep money in the bahamas buy living here, paying bills, etc, but since there are so many out of work bahamians, we need to get them jobs and or training, like you said, before we outsource to another country.

Unfortunately I cant be there also since things are slow business wise and Im out trying to get jobs or working on jobs to get more or bigger jobs, but good luck with it.

Rory

I am able to personally attest to the fact that our immigration policy needs re-vamping. There are too many expats, that are much less qualified than many Bahamians, in this country earning five and six figure incomes that Bahamians should be earning. I have talked to immigration and I have talked to politicians about this scenario----all to no avail. It is the government's job to ensure that qualified Bahamians are given first priority in banking jobs---unfortunately this is not happening. It appears that some one or some bodies must be reaping huge benefits by allowing less qualified foreigners to supersede qualified Bahamians in banking positions. In this vein, I am disappointed in the policies relating to this issue by both the FNM and the PLP. IT IS TIME FOR BAHAMIANS TO WAKE UP AND DEMONSTRATE AGAINST THIS POLICY!!!!!!

CONTINUE THE FIGHT LESLIE, I AM IN FULL AGRREMENT OF YOUR EFFORTS. ROYAL BANK EMPLOYEES NEED TO WAKE UP AND UNIONIZE!!!!!!

In the major metropolitan area where I reside, I witness massive demonstrations etc, on a regular basis. The most noticeable difference between the participants here is that they demonstrate against their offenders where it matters: by boycotting any revenue generating activty which usually negatively impact the offenders and forces the desired results. However, my experince at home has been that many if not most of the demonstrators in most instances are usually among the people keeping the offender in business. Often, to support lifesyles of waste and over indulgence. My point: until all Bahamians are serious about becoming more fiscally repsonsible we will always be "dependent" on external resources for our very survival! Remember, like it or not, unless you actually make the deposit, even if you sign the check you are powerless! A lesson I regret not being taught many years ago!

Leslie,

Good luck in fighting this. Something tells me your gonna loose this battle. Sorry......It's just the way it goes.

Money overpowers the right way for things to happen.

ps: I work for a law firm that gets your daily e-mails, wish there was something we could do.

Is no easy thing to swallow discrimination of any kind. One can experience it at different points in life and different circumstances. I have been exposed to discrimination in more ways than one and sometimes it has been in a subtle way. In the case of foreign banking institutions doing business in The Bahamas; these are representatives of foreign ownership, Royal Bank of Canada is owned by foreigners who are not exactly looking out for the progress of local staff members.

Their usual policies are to appoint their “own” to key positions within the organization; those that they would identify with and are of like background. This is true of all foreign banks. One only needs to meet a few to notice this. They are not here because they love Bahamians; they come here because it has, and it was (before Mr. Ingraham changed it ) a good business proposition.

I am somewhat surprised though that RBC hasn’t implemented fair employment practices, I would have thought that Canada and The Bahamas have something more in common as members of the Commonwealth encouraging exchange employment programs for the benefit of both.

The real problem as I see it is much greater and more serious than the discrimination Leslie the citizen has been the victim of; the real seriousness of the matter is that The Bahamas finds itself today economically at the mercy of other nationals; banking and tourism being the two major industries that sustain our nation both greatly controlled by foreigners. There are no other industries that bear significance. Our employment force has concentrated on banking and tourism and the remaining balance probably in government agencies.

Government has in the past not placed great emphasis on education; for many years there has been one college and until recently this one college was not even really organized. It appears that now, is much better. One “state” college, think about it! Well there are others like Queen’s but this one is private and not for the masses. The issue of education is crucial because a nation is empowered by what it has to offer; as long as our children and our young people are not taught that “education is power” our nation will remain mediocre and at the mercy of foreigners that think they have more “know-how”.

Instead of wasting so much money Government should see to it about setting a strong program on education for Bahamians; exposing them to other career choices; equipping them into becoming professionals, business owners, entrepreneurs, linguists, diplomats.
Good work ethics. There should be programs that teach them about agriculture, manufacturing, trade. There should be a financial aid program that once they finish a career they would be given the choice and opportunity to set up shop. May be with an incentive built in so as not to encourage wastage; as in like a loan with very low interest rate with a payback schedule.

This discrimination thing is not just a black or white issue; I know of “white” Bahamians that have also been left on the side lines; just because the foreigner has been perceived as better qualified. Before going into my own business; for a few years I worked at a foreign bank and had the opportunity to work with Leslie. I know he is qualified in his field, speaks fluent Spanish; he usually sought opportunities for more training and improvement.

Unfortunately on the other hand, there are Bahamians, in banking and other offices and business that do not perform responsibly. Those that constantly complain and suck teeth, steal company time and money; and make the genuine hard worker Bahamians look bad.

We know that our banking industry has been greatly crippled therefore making it difficult to negotiate from a position of strength.

Bottom line is that Bahamians should not be treated like second class citizens in their own country. Government should recognize its role as the watchdog that will not only protect our rights but provide alternatives for a quality life now and into the future.

:eek: