The entrance of the Royal Towers was blocked today by over 100 angry employees of Kerzner International who were protesting the recent pay increase of $1.50. Police officers were also dispatched to the property to assist in keeping the peace at the billion dollar resort. The employees were demanding that the Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union and Atlantis executives resolve this issue as soon as possible or expect more strikes to accrue this week.

This was just one of a many labor unrests that took place today in Nassau and coincidently on the heal of the Progressive Liberal Party's opening convention.


What do you think about the strikes that accrued today?
Are we heading for more labor unrests in the Bahamas?
Who is at fault here? The Government? The Employers or the Employees?
How can all of this be resolved?
Please post your comments on this issue.

The entrance of the Royal Towers was blocked today by over 100 angry employees of Kerzner International who were protesting the recent pay increase of $1.50. Police officers were also dispatched to the property to assist in keeping the peace at the billion dollar resort. The employees were demanding that the Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union and Atlantis executives resolve this issue as soon as possible or expect more strikes to accrue this week.

This was just one of a many labor unrests that took place today in Nassau and coincidently on the heal of the Progressive Liberal Party's opening convention.


What do you think about the strikes that accrued today?
Are we heading for more labor unrests in the Bahamas?
Who is at fault here? The Government? The Employers or the Employees?
How can all of this be resolved?
Please post your comments on this issue.

This is a no brainer. The employees are at fault. If they dont like it quit and get a different job. They should be fired and allow people that WANT to work get a job!

i really hope my fellow coworkers know what they are doing, the hotel is over sold and our guests who have been saving for a very long time need not be exposed to industrial actions. It takes months or even a year to save for a vacation like we all know it is simply not fare to them

I agree. I was actually vacationing in the Bahamas and went to the Atlantis to see it. And I know it takes a while to go on vacation, especially another country. And it would make it very uncomfotable for the visitors to think that maybe it is their fault. So, maybe the strike could be done in a different way. But, then again I don't know the life they are living.

I agree. I was actually vacationing in the Bahamas and went to the Atlantis to see it. And I know it takes a while to go on vacation, especially another country. And it would make it very uncomfotable for the visitors to think that maybe it is their fault. So, maybe the strike could be done in a different way. But, then again I don't know the life they are living.


its not a matter of what life they are living, they have a job and Atlantis pays fairly well compared to most places in the Bahamas. They know how bad the economy is here with small businesses closing down left and right. They just dont care, they see someone else making money and want it to and will do anything to get it. These unions around here are just plain bad for this country. They should be abolished.

Eg. A Bahamian works for a company, say $400 per week, plus benefits. They are asked to do something other than what they are hired for, as it is all one company and if some help is needed elsewhere, they should be willing to do so. NOPE, i need a raise to do that, dat aint my job boy! Yall better be payin extra for dat, or i gonna report yall to the union.

Ok, so this happens at just about every Bahamian company, its a typical scene, except for the union, the thing that was supposed to get done does not and hence we have the quality and service in the Bahamas as we have right now. TERRIBLE SERVICE, TERRIBLE ATTITUDES. People need to get in touch with reality.

Atlantis employees need to show respect to the company wo employs them. I am an unemployed Eleutherian who must spend each trying to create an income for themself. You have a job everyday and can count your paycheck every week. Be thankful and not greedy. Your time will come if you do great service. Kudo's to the personell office at Atlantis. Kudo's to Kersener who is embarrassed by Bahamians right now. But things will change.

Show respect for essential living Bahamians. Go to Bombay and see what you think of Nassau. Thank you.
Gemmanyah

Atlantis employees need to show respect to the company wo employs them. I am an unemployed Eleutherian who must spend each trying to create an income for themself. You have a job everyday and can count your paycheck every week. Be thankful and not greedy. Your time will come if you do great service. Kudo's to the personell office at Atlantis. Kudo's to Kersener who is embarrassed by Bahamians right now. But things will change.

Show respect for essential living Bahamians. Go to Bombay and see what you think of Nassau. Thank you.
Gemmanyah


im with you on that. They should be glad to have a job right now. The bahamas economy is very bad at this time, though things will pick up. They should know other bahamians are experiencing much harder times right now, and at Xmas none the least.

I wish I had known when this thread first started. This is really my bag and I know I will be tarred and feathered for my views on this, because I honestly believe that the Government and the employers (NOT employees), must bear most if not all of the blame for the labour unrest in this nation!

Do we know why unions were formed? I am told that a very long time ago, when there were no unions in the world, employers used to take serious advantage or workers, overworking them, treating them like dirt and paying them little or nothing. So unions were started so that workers could receive some kind of fair treatment on the job. And nowadays it could well be that unions in some cases are carrying the employers too hard, and if this is happening it is unfair to the employers and should not be allowed!

And maybe the educational system can also bear some of the blame. I would like to give a summary of my work life to try to explain my persprctive on this business of jobs and working for a living in our Bahamas! When I first left school, I was prepared to spend the rest of my life working for one business or company. But guess what? I ended up working for about 37 different companies, and if I had not gotten married and decided to settle down, I would have probably have worked for over a hundred different businesses or companies!

Now how, you may ask, could this have happened? Well, during my last school year in 1949, we were led to believe that the work world was all seweetness and light. No one told us that on a job the manager or supervisor would cuss you out for practically nothing, using all kinds of obscene language at you -- that other workers would tell lies on you and cause you to get fired from the job for nothing! I would take up too much of your time if I were to explain some of the most terrible, godforsaken and unfair treatment dished out to me on most of the jobs where I have worked.

And of course in many cases when they cuss me for nothing, I would just return the favour and be fired. In many other cases, I would just walk off the job and never return. I never even went to collect the so called dismissal pay -- If they treated me like dirt for no reason, then I also felt like they were dirt and not fit for me to be associated with! To be absolutely honest, considering the 36 or so jobs I was dismissed from or quit, I would say that in only about 2 or 3 instances I had deserved to be fired! I just went from job to job, looking for the perfect job, being young and a bit foolish (or maybe I should say inexperienced in the ways of the world), I just did not know then that you are going to find things you don't like on all jobs!

During my working years, I have seen so many people got dismissed unfairly, and considering the unnecessary hell I was put through I always feel much sympathy for workers who seem so frustrated that they are prepared to quit the job! This thing has affected me so much, I have written a major short story describing some of the messy job situations in this Bahamaland. When you get fired for nothing, what is your recourse!? There were only 2 jobs out of the 37 where I was treated with great fairness and respect, and the strange thing is that they were small companies!

Therefore, in most labour unrest situations here, no matter what, I will always believe that in some way the worker is being taken unfair advantage of, and I will not believe otherwise unless I hear it from the Good Lord Himself, Amen.

Great Demos

Very good report, Great Demos. However, I am afraid that I take the employer’s view. It is the company that takes all the risk. It is the company that puts out the money to build. It is the company that makes the jobs. It is the company that should hire and fire the lazy and incompetent. All the unions do is ask more and more for less and less, and less is the quantity that most Bahamian workers specialize in. It seems that the unions support mediocrity in their workers, and fight employers who demand, or fire, because of it. The pendulum has indeed swung from greedy employers to greedy unions and substandard workers.

Thanks CG, there could well be much validity in what you are saying, and if so, it would seem that the unions should carry most of the blame because they would be defending workers who did not deserve any defense . The last company I worked for, where I spent 25 years before retirement, had a system whereby they did not really need a union. They had a number of checks and balances in their procedures that were really useful to the workers. If an employee had a gripe whereby he or she was being taken advantage of and it could not be resolved locally to the satisfaction of the employee, he or she could appeal to headquarters in the U.S. Once that appeal was made, the employee could not be fired even if he is later proven to be wrong. He would simply be given another chance. But woe to the manager or supervisor if he were found to be wrong in his treatment of the worker! He could be demoted or dismissed! I am not so sure if that company still treats their workers so kindly, but it was sure a great advantage to workers during my time there.

Anyway CG, I just hope all goes well in this situation so that all parties can live together in peace.

Great Demos

Very good report, Great Demos. However, I am afraid that I take the employer’s view. It is the company that takes all the risk. It is the company that puts out the money to build. It is the company that makes the jobs. It is the company that should hire and fire the lazy and incompetent. All the unions do is ask more and more for less and less, and less is the quantity that most Bahamian workers specialize in. It seems that the unions support mediocrity in their workers, and fight employers who demand, or fire, because of it. The pendulum has indeed swung from greedy employers to greedy unions and substandard workers.


I beleive ultimately the governement is responsible overall. If you mean just atlantis, then they need to chill, they get paid more than I get paid more than I make in a month in one week, when the season is good.

Bahamians as a whole need to change the way they live, they need principals and priorities, unions were not created to demand raises, they were created for fair treatment.

I agree that when I sign my contract, that I should not be asked to do more than I was hired to do for the same pay. The bank has this new thing calld cross training - we learn like 6 different roles and do all six for the same pay as we made when we did just one role - to me that is unfair.

If my resume becomes more valuable because I can do 6 distinct jobs, shouldn't pay reflect that - my contract said just a few things now it is like 4 pages long with duties that have been added yet my pay only increased slightly. That is not fair.

If I can do six jobs why can't I be paid at least twice my salary? Isn't that fair?

But I say the government because many companies still mistreat their employees ... and this should not happen. When you get hired you should ideally complete a contract with a list of your duties and salary. Not be hired and do many persons job.

My wife just quit a very prestigous school, they would not pay her for 2 months, not consecutive ... we had to get a lawyer for her to get paid, and that resulted in 3 post dated checks that are dated almost 3 months in the future?!?!

I said it before and I'll say it again, if the government does not step up, people will take the law into their own hands - and ya know bahamians is trip out when they get treated unfairly.

I don't know the situation at atlantis, but I am pretty sure it is not just about a pay increase. And if it is they probably making the workers multitask like the bank does and won't pay more. It ain't fair and I don't blame them.

they better treat people fairly or suffer the consequences. where there is smoke there is often fire.

They making to much dogone money... ......with no real qualifications, :uh: some them........yet not satisfied........

Is it $1.50 per day or per week

The entrance of the Royal Towers was blocked today by over 100 angry employees of Kerzner International who were protesting the recent pay increase of $1.50. Police officers were also dispatched to the property to assist in keeping the peace at the billion dollar resort. The employees were demanding that the Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union and Atlantis executives resolve this issue as soon as possible or expect more strikes to accrue this week.

This was just one of a many labor unrests that took place today in Nassau and coincidently on the heal of the Progressive Liberal Party's opening convention.


What do you think about the strikes that accrued today?
Are we heading for more labor unrests in the Bahamas?
Who is at fault here? The Government? The Employers or the Employees?
How can all of this be resolved?
Please post your comments on this issue.

Those employees at Atlantis need to work in someone else's shoes where there are no benefits like bonuses or raises.Some Private companies don't even give christmas bonus and I heard they get turkey, ham and money! I say a penny given should be more appreciated than having to beg for it.Try working for years and not receive a cent!You'll be more happy with little rather than none:raw:

Delroy this thread needs to be closed...look how long this strike has been over....