Route 50 (Georgetown to Rosignol) minibus operators yesterday picketed the Office of the President (OP), as they moved demonstrations against new zoning regulations to the city.
Late yesterday, the operators announced that they would end strike action, after President Bharrat Jagdeo agreed to meet with them to address their concerns about recent regulations that prevent them from transporting passengers across the Berbice River Bridge.
A group of around two dozen operators, with placards, gathered at the Square of the Revolution and was joined by activists Mark Benschop and Freddie Kissoon, who led them on a march once outside the OP compound. The group was prevented from doing this a second time after the police cordoned off the area. Although permission was not granted for the protests, police did not move to make arrests.
President of the Route 50 Minibus Association Keith Alfred said last evening that following the picketing exercise outside of the OP, President Jagdeo’s secretary called and indicated his willingness to meet with them. Alfred said that the date for the meeting will be confirmed on Friday. As a result, the Association decided to call off the strike. “What we heard was good enough,” Alfred said, while expressing the belief that the operators will get justice.
The operators began their strike on Monday in Berbice, affecting many workers and schoolchildren who were forced to return home because they were unable to access transportation. The Association was protesting the impact of the introduction of the Route 56 Zone on their livelihoods. The Road Service Licence for Route 50 operators was amended to stop at the Rosignol Stelling, while Route 63 has been amended to stop at the New Amsterdam Ferry Stelling, as a result of the introduction of Route 56. Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee and Minister of Transport and Hydraulics Robeson Benn had met with the members of the Berbice Minibus Association in June to discuss the new route, which was proposed by operators to replace the ferry service from Rosignol to Georgetown and to prevent zone trespassing by minibuses plying other routes. The protestors were yesterday calling for a meeting with Rohee and Benn.
Monica Evans, a bus owner and conductress, said there should be a route from Georgetown to New Amsterdam. “I don’t think it’s fair for the passengers coming from Corentyne, with the 63 buses, to have to pass the bridge, go all the way to New Amsterdam then to sit in a line waiting on a bridge bus to full,” she said. “Then the bridge bus would take them all the way to the Rosignol Stelling, where they have to tow another bus, which is the Georgetown bus,” she added. She said that it is not fair for one passenger to have to use so many vehicles to get to where he or she is going.
Evans, the lone female on the picket line, said that she had been operating for the past three years and that the new changes have already had a negative impact on her pocket. She said that since the new measures have been implemented, there has been a large reduction in the volume of customers and she is not earning as much as before. According to her, she has outstanding bills to pay and no idea how she will meet them.
Andrew Benson also expressed frustration with the new regulation and he said that a bus park should be set up in New Amsterdam for Route 50 buses to create a system of equity. According to him, the new measures are clearly disadvantageous to the minibus operators currently plying the route. He noted that a lot of the competition came from the hire car operators. “The hire cars are on the rampage,” he said, explaining that they are now doing jobs which the minibuses operators would traditionally do.
He said that the bus operators decided to move their protests to Georgetown “to vent their frustration” because they were not getting any favourable response in Berbice. He said that they hoped that a change in location would bring about positive change.
Benschop told this newspaper that he and Kissoon were asked by the Route 50 Minibus Association to assist them in their cause. He said that the actions by the bus operators were totally justified, since it appears that justice cannot be achieved in the country unless a protest is arranged.
Meanwhile, police last evening said a set of Route 50 drivers used their vehicles to block the East Coast Public Road, in the vicinity of Letter ‘T’ Estate. They are also alleged to have used fallen trees and other debris. “Police ranks from ‘B’ Division, ‘C’ Division and the Tactical Services Unit systematically cleared the roadway, allowing for the free flow of traffic,” police detailed in a statement, adding that the perpetrators fled to West Berbice upon seeing the police. “Some of them have been identified and will be pursued with a view of having them arrested and arraigned,” police said, noting also that there was one report of damage to property.
However, Secretary of the Association Joseph Moore yesterday denied that any of the Association’s bus operators were part of this exercise. He said that the operators were at Onverwagt yesterday morning.
On Monday, the striking operators converged first at the Bath Public Road and then proceeded to Belladrum and Profitt, close to the Abary Bridge and the Letter ‘T’ Estate, at Mahaicony.
Reports reaching this newspaper are that at one location protestors slashed the tyres of a minibus that was transporting passengers while at another location, tree trunks were placed across the road. However, police arrived and removed these obstacles after which the protestors dispersed.
