Hundreds of hotel workers yesterday swarmed the Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union (BHCAWU) on Harrold Road with hopes of receiving $100 grocery vouchers.
Scores of parked cars were scattered across the area as hordes of people spilled from on top of the hill where the union’s office is located onto the road.
“I was here from 6:30 a.m., but I left about 7:30 a.m.,” Carla Robinson-Coakley, 52, a housekeeper at the Melia Nassau Beach resort, told The Nassau Guardian.
“I wasn’t for it because, you know, I cannot deal with too much [crowd] and things like that.
“A lot of people going through plenty and because I am not in that state probably that somebody else might be in, I decided to just leave and wait and come back when it dies down.”
Robinson-Coakley said there were “between maybe 700 and 800” people waiting for assistance when she arrived.
Veron McDonald, 59, an employee at the One and Only Ocean Club, said he arrived at the union at 8:45 a.m.
By 11 a.m., he was served.
“It went alright,” he said.
“The process was smooth, just a little hot.”
There were about 150 people waiting for assistance when McDonald left shortly after 11 a.m.
Not long after the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed in the country, the government declared a state of emergency and ordered that all non-essential businesses close.
Hotel workers were among the first to be sent home. Thousands more have been laid off in the last few weeks.
On April 14, the union informed its members that the government had given it permission to distribute vouchers during the 24-hour curfew this week.
Members were assigned dates on which they were allowed to collect their vouchers.
According to the union, this was intended “to assist with the smooth flow of the distribution”.
However, the scene outside the union’s headquarters did not exhibit a smooth flow.
“It’s been chaotic,” said Renee Johnson, a Hilton employee.
She said she arrived at 7 a.m. and waited three hours to get served before leaving.
Johnson returned around 11 a.m.
“They should’ve arranged it better,” she told The Guardian.
“Every hotel should’ve been on one line. The Hilton should’ve been on one line, Kentucky [Fried Chicken] on one line, the other hotel on another line. You shouldn’t put all in one category. Everybody [is] supposed to have a separate line.”
She added, “This should’ve been organized better than this.”
BHCAWU President Darrin Woods defended the way the union organized the distribution.
He said, “It was chaotic because we got approval for a drive-thru but when the police came this morning, they saw the traffic.
“The persons were out here from before five o’clock — I don’t know how — and they had the highway backed up. So, we told them they had to park their cars and come out of their cars. That is what caused it to be chaotic.”
Distribution was scheduled to take place from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
However, according to Woods, the process was completed by 12:30 p.m.
“Everything was completed,” he said.
“We actually were just sitting here to see if anybody was going to come.”
Duran Burrows, 30, an employee at the Melia, arrived shortly after 8 a.m.
It took him roughly an hour to be served.
He said the process “wasn’t that bad”.
“It wasn’t nothing to row about,” he said.
Burrows said the vouchers he picked up yesterday will be very helpful for him.
“It’s better than nothing,” he said.
Today, the first group of Atlantis employees is due to collect vouchers.
Atlantis is the largest private employer in The Bahamas.
Ahead of the temporary layoffs last month, it had more than 7,000 workers.
The post Hotel workers swarm union office to collect vouchers appeared first on The Nassau Guardian.
source https://thenassauguardian.com/2020/04/21/hotel-workers-swarm-union-office-to-collect-vouchers/
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