A Letter From Purity Bakery - The General Strike

Cable Address - Vulcan, Nassau
Telephone 2767
Purity Bakery, Limited
Post Office Box 778
Nassau . . . Bahamas

23rd January 1958.

The Secretary,
The Bahamas Federation of Labour,
P. O. Box 451,
Nassau, Bahamas.

Dear Sir,

We are in receipt of a draft agreement enclosed with your undated letter handed to us on Saturday, January 18.

At a meeting of Purity Bakery, Limited it was decided not to sign an agreement with The Bahamas Federation of Labour for the following reasons:

On November 22 we received a letter from The Bahamas Federation of Labour signed by Mr. Randol F. Fawkes stating that a branch union had been established in our Bakery and asking consideration of an increase in pay for employees, time and a half for overtime, etc. As a result of this letter and a meeting between Mr. Fawkes, Mr. Anthony Roberts and officers of Purity Bakery, Limited it was agreed that Mr. Fawkes would supply us with a list of members of the Bahamas Federation of Labour in our employ and we in turn would write the Federation stating the consideration we were prepared to give our employees in regard to pay increases etc. Mr. Fawkes failed to comply with his part of the agreement and refused to give us a list of Union members in our employ.

On Monday, December 30, a meeting was held in the office of Mr. Leonard J. Knowles with the following persons present: -

Mr. Leonard J. Knowles (as Conciliator)
Mr. Randol F. Fawkes
Mr. Anthony Roberts
Mrs. Donald R. Saunders
Mr. Donald R. Saunders.

At this meeting the following agreement was reached and mutually agreed to:

(1) An increase of 15%-20% in the salary of all employees.
(2) Creation of a fifty-hour week, with time and one-half payment for all work performed in excess of fifty hours per week.
(3) That each employee who has been in our employ for a period of three months or longer will be given two weeks’ notice, or in lieu thereof two weeks salary, prior to his discharge provided the Union will give us a guarantee that we will be given two weeks’ notice prior to an employee leaving our employ.
(4) That each employee will be granted two weeks paid vacation after he has been employed by us for over a period of twelve months.
(5) The above agreement to take effect beginning the week December 29th, 1957.

The above agreement did go into effect and an announcement of this agreement was made in the Press by The Bahamas Federation of Labour.

As a result of this agreement our employees were paid at the new rate of pay on Saturday, January 4, and Saturday, January 11. After making enquiries from certain key employees on Saturday, January 11, we learned that, with the exception of one or two out of a total of sixty-seven employees, all were quite satisfied with their pay increases.

On Sunday, January 12, at 1.30 p.m. two men, members of the Union, came into our Bakery and spoke to the employees and all employees walked out of the Bakery leaving three ovens filled with bread, approximately one thousand loaves in the proofing room, six doughs in troughs and one dough in the mixer. As a result we lost approximately 4,500 loaves of bread valued at £300. These employees could have kept on the job until all doughs mixed were baked and then refused to work further, but instead they walked off the job without having given us prior notice and knowing we would lose a considerable quantity of bread as a result.

On Monday, January 13, at 3.30 p.m., twenty-six hours after our employees walked off the job, we were handed a letter from The Bahamas Federation of Labour signed by Mr. Fawkes intimating that the Federation was no longer satisfied with the agreement made two weeks previously and that the employees would stay on strike until the Union's demands were met in full.

Could it be that the Federation is pulling straws, trying to find an excuse for calling our employees out on strike in support of the Taxi-Cab Union and thereby breaking our agreement made only two weeks previously.

In view of the above we feel that a new agreement will be of no avail. Further, our business has been temporarily closed as a result of this strike and the employees you claim to represent are no longer in our employ.

When our Bakery was forced to shut down we had sixty-seven people employed the year round with a payroll of £750 per week.

In view of conditions now existing in Nassau if we were to re-open our business tomorrow we would need a maximum of twenty-five employees instead of the sixty-seven previously employed by us.

We feel that under the circumstances there is nothing further to discuss.

Yours faithfully,
PURITY BAKERY, LIMITED

Marjorie E. Sands,
President.

Donald R. Saunders,
Managing Director.