Dear Editor,
Please allow me space in your column to express my views on the recent industrial action taken by the majority of the rostered Bahamasair flight attendants over the weekend.
It is clear to me that the workers who staged the sick-out did not just do so out of the blue. Certainly, negotiations were ongoing and the management and the government must have been aware that the union was not happy with the progress being made.
This administration has had nothing near to what the former administration faced.
The Minnis administration lost the second and third largest revenue generating islands in that of Grand Bahama and Abaco after Hurricane Dorian decimated those islands.
While recovery efforts were ongoing, COVID-19 shut down the entire world. In The Bahamas, not one government employee lost their job throughout the time of the pandemic.
Many people who never contributed to the National Insurance Board, like jet ski operators, taxi drivers, hair braiders and more, all got regular assistance checks from the government.
And on the top of all of this, a major food assistance program was introduced to feed the nation in those trying times. And all of this was done with little to no revenue coming into the country.
Now that the economy has been fully reopened, the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) administration has been propagating that it is exceeding budgeted revenue.
I, therefore, put the question, why has this government not made proper budget allocations to avert situations like this?
They can’t say they didn’t know because this is what they campaigned on.
The PLP told the workers and the union leaders that they would pay all outstanding salary increases. You mean to tell me after former Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis did all the heavy lifting the Davis administration couldn’t at the very least handle this little matter?
They think the Bahamian people’s memory is short, but I should warn them, not when it comes to money.
The people are also waiting for, firstly, the increase in minimum wage and for this Davis administration to introduce the promised livable wage as well.
You see it was easy making all those campaign promises.
Now it is time to deliver. Not so easy now aye?
The PLP criticized Dr. Minnis and said all manner of things against him to turn the voting populace away from him.
Now that the shoe is on the other foot, the PLP wants everyone’s support and understanding.
I submit that this is wishful thinking. The chicken are now coming home to roost.
Prime Minister Philip Davis and the PLP must remember what goes around comes around. The Bahamasair industrial action is only the beginning of the myriad problems that they will have to contend with.
As always, I conclude with the wise saying: “A word to the wise is sufficient”
— The Councilman