Taxi drivers dislike involving tourists in industrial disputes, but will "do what we have to do" in the face of what Taxi Union vice president Cheryl Ferguson called the government's failure to do its job
Mrs. Ferguson said the Bahamas Union of Taxi Cab Drivers (BUT) was calling for regulations to be upheld and large tour companies to stop their practice of "stealing" work from taxi and limousine drivers.
Mrs. Ferguson, who spoke at a press conference held near the entrance to the Royal Towers, Atlantis, said her comments did not only refer to Tuesday evening's incident at Prince George Dock – where taxi drivers blockaded a group of buses filled with cruise passengers. Tourism Minister Obie Wilchcombe told members of the House yesterday that there were 400 passengers in the group.
The taxi drivers, authorities were told, had thought the tour company, Bahamas Experience Travel, was taking business which rightfully belonged to them – no notice of a scheduled tour having been posted as required by regulations.
According to Mrs. Ferguson, the union's suggestion to put in place a system by which each tour company had to present a daily itinerary of the groups they had arranged to collect has been repeatedly ignored.
According to Mrs. Ferguson the BUT does not like it "when guests are pulled into this but when it comes down to our bread and butter, we have to do what we have to do." She said that the taxi drivers acted on Tuesday "because Road Traffic is not doing their job."
Mr. Wilchcombe, who with Transport Minister Glenys Hanna-Martin, arrived on the scene of Tuesday's incident to meet with the taxi drivers, said yesterday that The Bahamas cannot afford for visitors to be inconvenienced in this way.
Source: Paco Nunez, The Tribune
