By GUARDIAN STAFF WRITER

Amid negotiations for a new industrial agreement for hundreds of workers and privatization talks, the Bahamas Communications and Public Officers Union (BCPOU) is planning to soon call industrial action at the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC), union president Robert Farquharson confirmed to The Nassau Guardian last night.

"It's forthcoming," Farquharson said of the pending action. "It's imminent."

Asked whether the BCPOU will be seeking the support of other unions in this effort, he said, "They are already involved."

The union head has been threatening industrial action for months now as BCPOU officials continue to lock horns with BTC executives and government officials.

Farquharson and the union have been pushing the government to include them on a privatization negotiating committee and the union head had been seeking a meeting with Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham to discuss concerns in an attempt to head off any unrest at the government-owned telephone company.

The BCPOU president has also asked John Pinder, president of the National Congress of Trade Unions, to help address the issues, but apparently there has been no resolution to those concerns.

Farquharson said he along with the head of BTC's management union have been appointed to a privatization advisory committee that has no terms of reference and has not been meeting.

They have been pushing to have union representation on what they consider to be the more substantive committee involved in negotiations with Bluewater Communications for the privatization of BTC. That committee is headed by Commonwealth Bank Chairman T. Baswell Donaldson.

In the House of Assembly recently, Prime Minister Ingraham said BTC will be privatized during the 2008/2009 fiscal year.

As they continue their bid for representation on the Donaldson-led committee, BCPOU executives are also trying to reach agreement with BTC's board on a new contract for workers.

Farquharson had accused the board of seeking to end certain benefits employees currently enjoy.

Last night, Minister of State for Finance Zhivargo Laing, who has ministerial responsibilities for BTC, told the Nassau Guardian that he does not think the issues that are concerning the union warrant industrial action.

Asked whether he was concerned about any possible unrest at BTC, Minister Laing said, "One never wants to see any disruptions in the operating environment in any entity or organization so to the extent that that could happen one would always be concerned, but it is also true that there has to be reasonableness on the part of all parties in a matter and we are of the view that the position that the government has taken in respect of the involvement of the union on the advisory committee on privatization is a reasonable one.

"It is a committee that myself and other ministers are on. It is a committee that will have responsibility for vetting any recommendations that will emerge out of any privatization negotiations."

He admitted that the advisory committee has not yet met because it was still being constituted.

"We had been constituting the committee to conclude an additional two persons from the private sector on it," the minister explained.

Regarding privatization talks, Minister Laing said as far as he has been advised progress is being made.

But he said, "There continues to be some outstanding issues. I think some eight or nine issues are outstanding."

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. I am not aware that any impasse has been arrived at even though some difficult issues have been discussed."

Farquharson did not reveal exactly when the union plans to take action with the support of other unions in the country.