Commuters stranded as taxi operators in Portmore and Kingston join national strike

Commuters were left stranded on Monday morning as taxi and bus operators in Portmore, St Catherine and downtown, Kingston joined their colleagues across the island in a national strike, demanding a traffic ticket amnesty.

The police are on the George Lee Boulevard to ensure operators do not block the road.

At the major transport hub in downtown, Kingston, commuters crammed buses from the state-owned Jamaica Urban Transit Company, as taxi operators parked their vehicles in protest.

On Sunday, taxi operators voted for an islandwide shut down of the public transport sector today, given that the Government had not granted a traffic ticket amnesty request from the Transport Operators Development Sustainable Services (TODSS).

They were of the view that a request for the amnesty would go to Cabinet on Monday, but were informed this weekend that it would not.  

At Sunday's meeting hosted by the TODSS at Half-Way Tree Primary School in St Andrew, 99 per cent of those present reportedly voted for the strike action. 

Egeton Newman, president of the TODSS, told the operators that discussions with Minister of Transport and Mining, Audley Shaw, did not definitively state that an amnesty was on the horizon. 

“We need to send a message to the Government for an amnesty. They give gunmen amnesty! Foolishness! Give us the amnesty! We are willing to pay! All we want is a payment plan,” Newman said. 

Newman wants payment plans ranging from six months to four months. 

“If they give us three months, we can make use of the three months. The last time we got an amnesty, I think it was four months and the Government raked in nearly $900 million dollars, so I think if the Government really wants some money, use the amnesty,” he said. 

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