What now appears to be a battle between the Georgetown municipality and the recently created Guyana Market Vendors Union (GMVU) for the ‘hearts and minds’ of the urban vending community is heating up in the wake of last week’s move by City Hall to formally register city vendors.
On Monday, President of the GMVU Eon Andrews told Stabroek Business that last Friday’s meeting, which was reportedly attended by more than 300 vendors and addressed by Town Clerk Royston King, was a thinly veiled attempt to smash the union given what he described as the “gradual but steady” interest being paid in the body by the vendors. “I am publicly restating the wish of the union to meet with the Town Clerk to talk about our relationship with the vendors,” Andrews said.
On Saturday, the Stabroek News reported that in the course of the City Hall meeting “over 300 vendors had been registered and had been issued with identification cards and a certificate.” King reportedly told the meeting that the move was intended to assist the council in monitoring the vendors in order to be able to better accommodate them when the City Council starts designing and constructing buildings to house them.