Passenger bus drivers in St. Kitts met on Sunday and decided against having a one-day strike on Monday.
A statement from Bus Drivers United issued last Thursday complained of harassment by police officers, a dramatic increase in passenger buses which severely undermined their profit margin and have been unsuccessful in securing meetings with high ranking police officers and the Minister of Transport, the Hon. Ian Patches Liburd.
“There has been a recent upsurge in the harassment of police on the road targeting bus drivers in particular,” said the release.
It added that there is also “great concern over the past months regarding the increased number of new numbers being distributed, therefore causing much discomfort on the road and consequently making business harder to maintain.”
“We have tried on numerous occasions to meet high ranking officers such as the Commissioner of Police, the Inspector in charge of Traffic, the Minister of Transport and others. The situation has become unbearable and urgent, urgent, urgent, steps have to be taken,” the Bus Drivers United statement said and called upon all bus drivers in St. Kitts to a meeting on Sunday 19th February at the War Memorial at 7 p.m.
Freedom Fm spoke to President of the Sugar City Bus Association Bernard Boland Jr who said that at a meeting held at the War Memorial on Sunday and chaired by Dale “Big Blue” Hughes, president of the West Line Bus Association, it was felt that the bus drivers should stick it out a little longer before striking, while hoping for a meeting with the Minister of Urban Planning and Transport, Honorable Ian ‘Patches” Liburd and Inspector Caines of the Traffic Department.
Freedom Fm also spoke to the Minister responsible for Urban Planning and Transport Ian Patches Liburd who indicated that no official proposal or letter had come before him from the bus associations and that he had heard about the bus issues via the media houses. Liburd said that both bus associations were members of the Traffic Regulations Board which would be meeting later this week and that hopefully these matters would be then resolved.
The Minister said the manner in which the bus associations went about airing their issues was confrontational rather than through consultation and reiterated that the Traffic Board headed by Inspector Caines was the place to resolve such conflicts. With reference to the matter of increasing numbers of bus drivers on the road, Liburd said some bus drivers had 3 and 4 licensees and were even leasing numbers to prospective bus drivers.