Fears Baha Mar could drain country of workers
By NOELLE NICOLLS
Tribune Staff Reporter
nnicolls@tribunemedia.net
If Baha Mar drains the labour pool of Bahamian workers then contractors will be left twiddling their thumbs, according to the Bahamas Contractors Association.
Stephen Wrinkle, BCA president said the project could drain the country of workers in a "New York minute", and leave Bahamian contractors "left on the side lines." It has happened before and it could happen again, he said. "(Atlantis) drained our labour pool and caused the labour rates to go up; the supply of skilled labour was at a bare minimum for local contractors. It was that experience that caused us to learn you cannot just take the labour. Otherwise what is the point of having Bahamian contractors. Why not just have a labour agent," said Mr Wrinkle.
The situation will not be different this time around unless the government requires Baha Mar to insert specific language in any final agreement mandating the participation of Bahamian contractors and funding to train Bahamians.
His comments came in the wake of Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham calling the labour component of Baha Mar "onerous, burdensome and unacceptable."
Baha Mar has requested work permits for 8150 foreign workers over the life span of the $2.6 billion project and pledged $60 million in the first instance for Bahamian contractors two work on phase one.
"There are very few contractors poised to participate in the scope of work. We are trying to press the point that they need to employ contractors who would be able to bring their crew and the full resources of the company to the project. Otherwise we are going to have a whole bunch of contractors standing around with no crew," said Mr Wrinkle.
In the long run, he said, the direct trickle down effect from employing Bahamian contractors will be significantly higher than with foreign contractors.
"They have no need to inject money into our local economy. Their priority is to take our labour. What we continue to say is this is the wrong approach, because all we are doing is providing maids and spades. That cannot work; our economy cannot work in a labour only supply environment. We need to see the mandatory inclusion and provision of Bahamian contractors rather than simply bringing in foreign contractors to suck up our labour supply," said Mr Wrinkle.
There were many lessons learned by the industry from the "Kerzner experience." Tribune sources say the number of Mexican and Filipino workers hired to build Atlantis reached the thousands, although Atlantis is often referenced as the poster child for employing Bahamian construction workers.
Mr Wrinkle said that is a fair assessment. It is a well known fact that the Bahamas does not have a sufficient number of workers to fill the labour needs of large foreign direct investment (FDI) projects like Atlantis and Baha Mar, he said.
Mr Wrinkle speculated that is why the Prime Minister "was hoping Baha Mar could be phased, so we wouldn't need that tremendous injection of foreign labour."
That is why it is important for the government to ensure the participation of Bahamian contractors and not just labourers on FDI projects, he said.
In the case of Atlantis, Mr Wrinkle said it was only because of the persistence of the BCA that Bahamian contractors got a piece of the Atlantis pie.
"It took us until phase three to have substantial participation on that project. We fought long and hard against Atlantis before we finally got a piece of the pie over there. It was not a gift. Mr Kerzner did not voluntarily employ Bahamians.
"At the end of the day we were successful at negotiating with them for the participation of Bahamian contractors," he said.
October 09, 2010
tribune242
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