President of the Bahamas Electrical Workers Union (BEWU), Kyle Wilson has called on the government to reveal the true plans for the restructuring of Bahamas Power and Light (BPL).
While speaking with ZNS News on Monday Wilson said, “it’s all about process and due process and transparency and thus far the workers have not seen due process, respect and transparency. And the Bahamian people at large are speaking out now that they are not seeing it. So yes, you would have the various pundits who sing for their supper who are gonna come out and engage in, what I would say, pity attacks. We are not going to be deterred from the message. The message is no to the selling or partnering or transferring of assets of the Bahamian crown jewels.”
General Secretary of the Bahamas Electrical Utility Managerial Union, Graham McKinney also spoke with ZNS News about the lack of information available on the government’s plans for BPL. He said, “we can’t champion a change if we don’t have information to share. Giving us a talk is not the same thing as giving us information that we can digest and share with our members.”
McKinney says that a letter was written to Prime Minister, the Hon. Philip Davis asking him to release information on the BPL restructuring. “Give us the governing documents that would say that our membership is going to be secure. Give us the documentation that would actually show just how the four phase rollout is going to happen and at each stage how many persons would be seconded. The timelines we were told were between eighteen and twenty four months. We want to make sure that at any point in time that none of our persons are disenfranchised n any way.”
The Prime Minister has stated that the government does not intend to privatize BPL and that there will be no job cuts.
