I am at a cross-road of emotion because I do not know whether to laugh, cry, feel deeply insulted or just greatly disappointed in the Minister of Labor’s, Shane Gibson, recent response to the situation at Sandals.

“Gibson: Job fair very suspicious – Minister questions Sandals’ motive” – The Nassau Guardian

Excerpt from this article; “Minister of Labor Shane Gibson said yesterday it is ‘very suspicious’ of Sandals Royal Bahamian Resort to host a job fair beginning Monday, a week after make more than 600 workers redundant, as the hotel closed for renovations.

‘Sandals said to the public and to us that u had no choice and said their lawyers advised them the only way to deal with employees was to terminate them, giving the impression that if they did not have to terminate them, they wouldn’t,” Gibson told The Guardian.

‘Well if they didn’t have a choice and they terminated them, why would they turn around to those good employees and say reapply for your job?

‘Why not bring back the employees?”

Minister this is the very same question that I asked of the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) in 2012, when they ‘terminated’ many government employees and asked them to reapply for their jobs; so for Minister Gibson to now say, “I was trying to be as open and objective as I could be about this, is disingenuous at best because he is quite familiar with the ’purging process’; the question is what is his government prepared to do about it?

If this government can and has already done this very same thing its very own citizens, what will Minister Gibson now do since he has already come out and said “…….there are labor laws in place and the government cannot start a precedent of dictating to private business owners how to conduct their affairs’, not even if it is in the best interest of Bahamians?

Is this what was learned from the ‘teachable moment’ of Baha Mar?

But since this government has already shown that it is fully prepared to do this to their own, how can they reasonably expect or demand better from others?

As just as a matter of information, I am at this cross roads becasue I find it utterly, insulting, humorous, laughable and disappointing that the minister would make such a statement and act as if he is lost as to what is happenng here, thereby questioning the intelligence of the Bahamian people.

The Progressive Liberal Party fails for one reason, it is within their nature.

END