Dismissed hotel workers can't vote in union elections
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| Angry hotel union members yelling at the union’s First Vice President Kirk Wilson Tuesday afternoon during an uproar over the transfer of union funds from a Bank of The Bahamas account. |
Hundreds of hotel workers who were dismissed from their jobs over the last year will not be able to vote in the upcoming hotel union elections, according to Secretary General Leo Douglas.
"When I am preparing the register for elections I can only put members in good standing," Douglas said. "I don't know anything about those who were made redundant. No one can vote who [is not a member] of the union in good standing; that is what the constitution says."
He said he did not want anyone to be misled.
Douglas said that Registrar of Trade Unions Harcourt Brown would not accept non-members being allowed to vote because that would go against the union's constitution and "could quite possibly lead to another legal battle within the organization."
The Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union has been plagued with infighting for more than two years.
In a ruling handed down July 31, Justice Jon Isaacs noted that in order to conduct a poll it is incumbent on the registrar of trade unions to ensure that only those persons who are financial members of the union cast their votes because the constitution of the union dictates that only they are eligible to vote. Isaacs also declared the May 4 nominations and May 28 elections null and void.
The union's first vice president, Kirk Wilson, has suggested that the former workers should be allowed to vote.
But union president Roy Colebrook also said yesterday that this will not be the case.