DEAL OR STRIKE?: BUT pres. says teachers will vote on strike threat

DEAL OR STRIKE?: BUT pres. says teachers will vote on strike threat
Belinda Wilson

NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Bahamas Union of Teachers President Belinda Wilson said a membership meeting will be held where members will decide whether to go on strike on August 22nd. 

BUT members previously participated in a strike poll where the majority voted in favour of taking a strike and Wilson recently told members to get ready for industrial action on August 22nd. 

Asked why a meeting is needed to verify the view of teachers, Wilson said yesterday: “There are moving parts.”

In a voice note on Friday, she said her union is closer than ever to finalizing a deal. 

“I’ve been in constant negotiation with the government’s lead negotiator for the past two days,” she said in the voice note.

“Both sides have agreed and or withdrawn the three non-economic articles that were outstanding respectively. I await a final agreement on two financial matters.

“The lead negotiator and I will continue to work and our final session is on August 18, 2022.”

Meanwhile, the government signed an industrial agreement with the Bahamas Educators, Counselors, and Allied Workers Union on Friday. 

“I have no comment,” Wilson told Eyewitness News about the agreement.

“But I await the signing of a full agreement with the Bahamas Union of Teachers to benefit our thousands of members from Grand Bahama to Inagua.” 

“The government has made an offer and there are three matters we are unable to get agreement on.” 

The BECAWU is a breakaway union of teachers who don’t agree with the BUT’s more militant approach to representing teachers’ interests. 

Sandra Major, the president of the union, praised the new agreement on Friday. 

“We received from them, of course, an increase in salary,” she said.

“We got an increment and this is the largest we’ve ever received over a three-year period and I was teaching for over 40 years and I have never received this great increase in my salary in three years.

“We also received the retention bonus – so the retention bonus as well we’ve accepted. We also got an increase in our allowances. We got an increase in our rental assistance. We got our insurance agent, which gave us a greater benefit to us.”

“In the first year we get a salary increase equal to two increments plus your normal increment and then the second year we get a salary increase equal to one increment plus normal increment. Then in the third year we get two again plus your normal increment.

“The retention bonus is after 25 years. You can accept all of it and it’s a gift.”

State Minister for Education Zane Lightbourne yesterday said the deal BECAWU received could differ from the deal the BUT gets. 

“The law provides for every bargaining agent to represent their members and so those members are identified through a process,” he said yesterday.

“There are actual persons and there are actual names and employee numbers of these persons and they have signed up for that union to negotiate on their behalf. In this particular scenario, there are different agents and the law provides for that. Your group of people and the people you represent can be subject to different arrangements within the bounds of the law and that could happen in this instance.”