While most Route 44 minibuses returned to work yesterday, an estimated 25 buses plying the Georgetown to Mahaica route stayed in the Mon Repos area in protest over what they believe they should be granted, a $40 increase in fares.
Bus driver Kalicharran Rooplall told this newspaper that most buses had resumed work. “Dem Enterprise, Annandale and Enmore bus and so working back. Is only dem Mahaica buses here on strike,” he explained.
Rooplall, who usually transports passengers up to Enterprise, said he was among the drivers standing their ground from the group that was on strike on Monday through Tuesday.
Orin Welcome, another bus driver, said the main reason for the strike is to have the increase in fares fixed since the price of gasoline has recently soared to almost $1,000 per gallon. He said he has made efforts in the past to have a meeting arranged with Minister of Commerce Manniram Prashad, but to no avail. “I call four times in January, but onto now I can’t get no response,” Welcome said.
Another minibus operator, Rudolph Marshall, said there are no plans to end the strike unless the fares are increased. “People suffering and we ain’t stopping until they raise the fares,” he exclaimed.
When asked what they would do if Public Works Minister Robeson Benn hired a fleet of buses to transport passengers for free like he did during the last minibus strike, drivers responded “till here? Let’s see him send buses till this side.”
Minibus drivers also related that children will be required to pay the same fare as adults. This is so since children occupy just as much space in a minibus as adults.
A resident of Enterprise said that persons would normally go out early in the mornings and have to wait in excess of 60 minutes prior to the strike. “Most of dem buses picking up school children only, or going short,” the woman explained. “Now with the strike, you got to stand and wait extra long to get a bus cause most of the buses ain’t working.”
An Ann’s Grove commuter, Kim Jordan, told this newspaper that she had experienced difficulty getting transportation on Tuesday and yesterday. “When gas price drop, they don’t drop prices,” the woman stated.
Another Mahaica passenger stated, “they [the bus operators] should think about poor people and people with children.”
However, another woman residing in Ann’s Grove told Stabroek News that she had not had any problem getting a minibus to go home. She said too that she has no problem paying the extra $20 asked by the Ann’s Grove minibus operators.
Yesterday afternoon, at peak hour, just one Mahaica bus was at the bus park. When asked about the others, the driver responded, “dem boys gone home from the strike.”
