By CANDIA DAMES, Guardian News Editor, candia@nasguard.com

A significant number of managers at the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) participated in yesterday's work stoppage which BTC Executive Vice President I. Kirk Griffin called illegal.

Bahamas Communications and Public Managers Union (BCPMU) President Claude Hanna confirmed that members of his union participated in support of the Bahamas Communications and Public Officers Union (BCPOU), which represents hundreds of line staff workers at the government-owned telephone company.

Griffin said the company was working to determine exactly how many workers left their posts.

The action resulted in BTC offices — including its John F. Kennedy Drive headquarters — being shut down yesterday, inconveniencing many customers.

The workers walked off their jobs in protest of the government's refusal to include BCPOU executives on a privatization negotiating committee. They were also protesting as a result of concerns relating to a new industrial agreement which is being negotiated, according to BCPOU President Robert Farquharson.

BTC workers parked company trucks in front of Parliament and Rawson squares yesterday morning as part of their protest, bringing busy downtown traffic to a standstill.

Griffin said in a press statement that BTC workers were apparently called off their jobs by the union leadership to a meeting at the union's headquarters at 10 a.m.

"At this time, staff were advised that they 'should be prepared' to be out for the rest of the week," Griffin said. "Both management and non-management staff were called to the meeting. This led to the closure of BTC business offices in New Providence and the suspension of scheduled repairs and installations."

Griffin said if the strike continues throughout the week this would have a serious impact on the company.

"We are a customer service organization," the BTC executive vice president noted. "Where we have employees for any period of time that's off the job it impacts the services we deliver to the customers."

He said as far as he was aware there was no union sponsored strike vote taken, so the work stoppage could only be characterized as illegal.

"I don't know how you can term it anything else," Griffin told The Nassau Guardian yesterday.

In his press statement he said, "Unfortunately, when we have these types of activities the persons most harmed are our loyal customers," Griffin said. "In fact, we have been working especially hard through the efforts of all BTC staff members to reduce outstanding customer faults and repairs. We were nearing a point where we would have been able to respond to any outstanding matter within 48 hours. This action obviously throws that target back somewhat."

Griffin said management and the union had been engaged in very productive negotiations on the company's labor contract with the most recent meeting taking place on Friday "where we were addressing the most critical and costly issues in respect to a new agreement. And, in my opinion, we were making very positive strides."

The BTC executive told The Nassau Guardian that the "strike" was having a significant impact on the company's operations, which were still shut down yesterday afternoon.

"What is so amazing is we had a great percentage of managers who participated in it," Griffin said. "So this wasn't just the BCPOU; this was the BCPMU."

He said he was surprised by yesterday's action.

Griffin said it was premature to say whether the workers who walked off their job would face any consequences, and he noted that some workers had returned to their posts yesterday afternoon.

But he added, "Choices have consequences and we just have to see what the consequences will be."

When he spoke to The Nassau Guardian last week, Minister of State for Finance Zhivargo Laing said there continued to be some outstanding issues relating to the new contract.

But the minister said those issues would not be resolved through any kind of strike action.

"You only resolve matters at the table," he said. "You don't resolve matters away from the table."