Bahamas - telecom strike

State owned telecommunications company workers strike

Hundreds of workers at the state owned telecommunications company in the Bahamas are on strike.

In the capital, Nassau, 700 employees walked off the job.

The workers, led by their unions are pressing for the government to allow them to have a say in the privatisation of the company.

Spokesman for the Bahamas communication and public officers union, Robert Farquarson says the workers have several grouses.

"Our primary objective is to persuade the government of the Bahamas to include both the unions who represent the workers of the company in the discussions surrounding the privatization of the company,"

"The government went on record and said they expect to privatize the company by December of this year but up to today we have not been involved in any of the discussions. We know that a privatization committee was appointed in March of this year in which we were not represented,"

"The government has appointed a second committee in which they have invited us to sit on but that committee to date has not met or been given terms of reference and we are not sure what that committee is about," he said.