The Tribune

By ANNELIA NIXON

Tribune Business Reporter

anixon@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas Taxi Cab Union’s (BTCU) president yesterday unveiled a two-week trial aimed at easing the long-running dispute between his members and livery operators at Lynden Pindling International Airport (LPIA). The move is set to begin today but the livery drivers union said no agreement has been reached.

Tyrone Butler said his union had reached an arrangement with Leon Lundy, minister of transport, during a follow-up meeting on Wednesday that would change how taxi and livery operators access passengers at the airport.

However, Tory Austin, the Bahamas Livery Drivers Union (BLDU) president, disputed that account, describing information about an agreement as “premature and inaccurate” and insisting that discussions remain ongoing.

“We had a follow-up meeting with the ministers of tourism and transport on Wednesday to discuss the ongoing saga,” Mr Butler said. “Coming out of that meeting, there was an arrangement - an agreement that the livery drivers would no longer be standing next to the taxi drivers on the airport door, and there’s supposed to be a change in the Road Traffic personnel out there to enforce the rules.”

Mr Butler said the new arrangement is expected to take effect this morning and will be tested for two weeks. He explained that three livery vehicles would still be permitted to park in the designated lane, but their drivers would not be allowed to stand at the terminal door soliciting passengers. Instead, their jobs would have to be pre-arranged, with Mr Butler saying customers could potentially access livery services inside the airport.

“There will be three livery cars that will be allowed to park in the lane, but they can’t be standing on the door,” he said. “They have to wait because their jobs would be pre-arranged from inside.”

At the same time, the taxi queue would be extended by three spaces from the front door area where passengers currently board the first taxi. Mr Butler said those spaces would come from an area previously used by livery operators.

“The particular spot that the taxi drivers are going to park, which will be extending our taxi line from the front door, where you catch the first taxi, that’ll go back further by three cars,” he said. “So we’re taking three spots away from them. So we’ll see. I don’t know what it will be like, but whatever it is, we’ll be up to it.”

The development comes weeks after taxi operators staged a protest at LPIA, temporarily blocking vehicular access to the international departures terminal in an escalation of a dispute that has persisted for years.

Taxi drivers have argued that livery operators are competing directly for airport passengers despite operating under a different regulatory framework, with livery services generally required to operate on a pre-arranged basis.

During the July protest, Mr Butler accused some livery operators of soliciting passengers at the airport and alleged that baggage porters and employees were directing arriving passengers toward livery services.

The BLDU rejected the broader characterisation of its members as operating unlawfully, with Mr Austin maintaining that the union does not condone solicitation and that individual violations should not be used to characterise the entire industry.

Mr Austin yesterday said discussions are still being held. “Premature and inaccurate information,” he said of Mr Butler’s comments. “No agreement has been made.

“Right now, everything is still in meetings. I would say everything is still being discussed. So it’s very premature to say something of that sort.”

Mr Butler, meanwhile, said Wednesday’s meeting included senior representatives from both the Government and labour unions.

Those present, according to Mr Butler, included BTCU executives, the acting Road Traffic Controller, the permanent secretaries from the ministries of Transport and Tourism, Mr Lundy and representatives of the Trade Union Congress, including president Obie Ferguson KC. He said Glenys Hanna-Martin, minister of tourismm participated by telephone.

The competing accounts raise questions over how the proposed two-week trial will be implemented if the two sides have not reached a common understanding of the terms. Mr Butler also expressed frustration over what he described as the Government’s continued willingness to accommodate a relatively small group of livery operators.

“So he [Mr Lundy] always seemed to have a counter position on their behalf, and it makes you wonder just who is he really fighting on behalf of?” Mr Butler said.

“And you know the thing about it is, these are not a group of men and women that are in numbers. If it’s 20 of them, that’s plenty. And so it’s so sad to see that a government is fighting for a handful of people.”