When the Union Movement came into being it was indeed something that was warranted as employers were, among other things, using child labor, and in general not paying workers a fair wage, or treating them with the dignity which they deserved. However, over the years the Union Movement has grown into, in my opinion, and I might add in the opinion of most thinking people, to be a most destructive movement worldwide. The blackmail, the continual threatening tactics used by the Union Movement worldwide, has and indeed continues to cause havoc in business and industry, and has been the major contributor to the annual rise in the cost of living. I predicted many years ago, that if the Union Movement was not curbed in The Bahamas, it would eventually contribute in no uncertain manner to the ultimate downfall of the Bahamian economy. Well My Friend, that prediction is unfortunately gradually becoming a sad reality. A couple of years ago a hurricane badly damaged a large hotel property, namely The Royal Oasis on the island of Grand Bahama. The closing of this huge property which employed 1,200 people, and supported many other tourist related businesses like taxis, casinos, shops, etc literally devastated the economy of the island of Grand Bahama, as the Property has never re-opened. And why did the then owners not promptly repair and reopen it as soon as possible? The real answer to that most important question, is that prior to the hurricane, the unions has constantly badgered the owners of the resort, who were doing their very best to continue operating, in spite of very serious financial difficulties, brought on incidentally, mainly by the unpredicted events of 9/11 2001. The owners could have, and indeed under normal conditions would have repaired and reopened the property in short order after the hurricane. However, due to the constant hassle with the union, they decided against doing that, thus throwing the entire island of Grand Bahama into economic turmoil…. these are THE FACTS! More recently, The Bacardi distillery on the island of New Providence in The Bahamas, which incidentally has been in operation for forty years, has announced a phased closing. The Bacardi distillery, which was a big tourist attraction also, will finally close it’s doors in April 2009. Now although their public relations people have done their best to try to sugar-coat the closure of their operations in The Bahamas, by stating that they are just consolidating their operations at their distillery in Puerto Rico; most thinking people fully understand, that it is simply too costly for Bacardi to continue to operate efficiently and effectively in The Bahamas. Over the years, the union has consistently driven up the cost of wages under constant threats of strikes. Now the breaking point has come, and the company is closing down its operations putting some 114 people out of work. Yes indeed, the unions are slowly but quite surely destroying The Bahamas! THINK ABOUT IT! E-mail: dpr@humanri.com

[ Fri, 04 Jan 2008 11:41:11 GMT ]

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