By ANGELO ARMBRISTER

Freeport News Reporter

One week after a dramatic blowup aborted the contract signing between the Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union and Our Lucaya executives, those parties met yesterday for an amicable conclusion to months of negotiations.

Overseeing the signing was Harcourt Brown, the director of labour, who said his Ministry found it necessary to work with both sides to find resolution after what had happened.

Yesterday, union executives headed by President Roy Colebrooke and hotel management led by Our Lucaya President Jon Markoulis returned to the table where they officially signed the contract that had been under negotiations from 2006.

"I just want to say on behalf of the minister, when we got word of the fact that the parties had not completed the signing of the agreement last week, we thought it was absolutely essential that we got involved to the point where we would be able to steer the parties back to the table to amicably resolve whatever differences existed," said Brown.

Pleased with the signing, Markoulis thanked members of his team for the work they did to get it to this point.

"We were quite pleased that we've been able to reach this milestone. Today, we concluded and signed a labour agreement that has been in the works for sometime," he said.

Pointing out that the hotel and tourism industry is experiencing difficult times now, Markoulis said it is only reasonable that all parties concerned be smart and creative in trying to maintain "what we have and gain some momentum in the face of financial difficulties that are coming along."

Echoing those comments was Colebrooke, who agreed that these are trying times that require prudent decision making.

"We realize that these are tough times in Grand Bahama and indeed The Bahamas, but we negotiated this contract in the best interest of the membership," he said.

"There are thousands of people who depend on the hotel workers' union and we have to do things that are in their best interests."

Referring to the contract as an "extremely good" one, Colebrooke said it addressed several contentious issues such as the wage packages and working conditions.

Last minute changes made by the hotel management to the contract that had already been approved did not sit well with union representatives, who let their displeasure be known.

Both parties stood in the Labour Department's building locked in a quiet, but battle heated verbal back-and-forth for more than 15 minutes, ending in the Our Lucaya President storming out of the room stopping only to tell Assistant Director of Labour Tyrone Gibson that they had not reached an agreement.

Immediately following the ordeal, the BHCAWU president called a press-briefing and shared with reporters and members present what had transpired.

The union president condemned the resort's representative for what he called their "dishonest and disrespectful" actions.

Yesterday, a new song was sung by Colebrooke, who now refers to the incident as a "misunderstanding."

"I think it is very important that we understand that it was a misunderstanding," he said, adding that there was some difficulty, but all has since been resolved.

The union president pointed out that a popular assumption is that negotiations consist of both parties coming forward with their demands, when in fact it "doesn't work like that."

"It isn't as easy as you think because some persons come with certain positions because we have different thinking and different ideas so we have to come up with something that is conducive to both parties

Colebrooke noted that after what had transpired last week, it is a good thing that both parties were mature enough to come back and discuss the differences and find reasonable solutions.

The newly-signed contract, which affects just under 900 workers, expires in 2010.