Calling for City Council to have a formal meeting with the Guyana Market Vendors Union, vendors from all around Georgetown armed themselves with placards and picketed in front of City Hall yesterday.
“Who must go? Royston King! Who must go? Patricia Chase-Green!” they chanted, braving the hot sun to voice their opinions. The placards told of their plight.
“Under attack we will fight back,” one placard read. “Georgetown belong to its citizens and it’s not some people personal’s property,” read another.
“We are here because we are fed up of what the council has been doing to the vendors and stallholders. We are being bullied by the Mayor and her colleagues and we are not in for that,” Dwayne Hicks, a stallholder from the Stabroek Market exclaimed yesterday. Hicks explained that while they are part of the union, and expected all decision making to be put through the union, but this is not being done.
“They cannot make decisions just like that and attack us just like that. Look the other day they said they found a gun under there and they are attacking all vendors. Why are they attacking vendors?” the man questioned. He said they are all “fed up” with the way the council has been operating and are picketing so that the representation of the union would be invited to a formal meeting where discussions can be had first before any decision is made.
“We are parents…[with children attending school]. We are out there trying to earn an honest dollar. We are not thieves and we are not attacking anyone, so that is why we are out here. We are fed up,” the man emphasized. He explained that the vendors view the decisions that are being made by the council as “bullyism” and they are calling on President David Granger and Minister of Communities Ronald Bulkan to intervene.
Highlighting the issue where the council found a firearm at the market, Hicks explained that the sequence of events did not make sense. “We were there and it was ten constables running after one man and they still couldn’t have catch he,” he said.
Another vendor said he was not happy with the way the incident was handled and is asking the authorities to highlight who the gun belongs to. “If you find a gun underneath the market is the stallholders have to pay the consequences? They don’t want peace and like the only peaceful place right now is the cemetery that they want to put us in,” the man said. He added that there were persons there selling for years and nothing of the sort has ever happened before.
The vendors also explained that little security is provided for them and their stalls even though the council has constables working the market who they allege would usually extort them for money. “They don’t protect our stalls. We are paying money and we are frustrated. The security they’re talking about isn’t there. My friend next door has to rebuild her own stall and when you in here to protect your stall they chasing you out,” the man claimed.
One of the elderly vendors broke down in tears yesterday. She has been selling at the market for years. “We are in the rain and sun to make an honest dollar and we have been here for years. We don’t give them problems. We are paying our rent and I don’t know why they after us,” she cried.
Head of the Union Eon Andrews pointed out that all they want was for the City Council to formally invite them to a meeting so they can have a collaborative discussion on any action that is going to be taken. “City Hall is inclined to be inviting small groups when persons are saying that we have a representative union. We are business people and can’t afford to lose all this time,” Andrews said.
He pointed out that since the union was formed the City Council has not yet acknowledged it, even though numerous requests were made for a meeting.
During the protest, a few council members addressed the crowd of vendors and invited them to a consultation meeting that was happening in the council chambers but Andrews declined. “We don’t want to be summoned. We want a formal meeting,” he said.
Contacted for a comment on the protest, Chase-Green said she was not sure if the union was interested in finding solutions, or creating divisions since they refused attend the consultation. She also said that an investigation has been launched into the allegations that officers extort money from vendors.
Andrews said the picketing will continue until a formal meeting is arranged.
