The Tribune

By ANNELIA NIXON

TRIBUNE Business Reporter

anixon@tribunemedia.net

Taxi drivers are threatening to escalate the dispute with their livery rivals at Lynden Pindling International Airport (LPIA) by summoning other unions for joint industrial action after recent talks with Leon Lundy, minister of transport, failed to produce a meaningful resolution.

The move represents a shift in position just one week after Tyrone Butler, the Bahamas Taxi Cab Union (BTCU) president, said he was prepared to give Mr Lundy “the benefit of the doubt” following the pre-Independence Day protest that saw taxi drivers briefly disrupt access to LPIA’s international departures terminal.

Mr Butler said the union is now ipreparing to consult with the Bahamas Trade Union Congress (TUC), its umbrella union body, on calling out affiliates to support industrial action.

“We will now speak with our Congress leader, Obie Ferguson KC, who will then convene a meeting with all the other affiliates, and then we’ll plan our next move, which will not just be taxi drivers, but it’ll be us and the Congress along with our affiliates,” Mr Butler said.

Asked whether that could result in wider strike action involving other unions, Mr Butler replied: “That’s our next move. And so we will be moving towards that from here on in. I don’t see any way that we can avoid going down that path because we obviously are not getting anywhere with the Government.”

The dispute centres on the taxi union’s long-standing claim that livery operators are unlawfully soliciting passengers on-the-spot at LPIA instead of operating strictly through pre-arranged bookings, thereby placing licensed taxi drivers at a competitive disadvantage. This, though, has been vehemently rejected by the livery drivers.

Mr Butler said the meeting with Mr Lundy left him convinced that the Government was unwilling to enforce existing transportation laws. “I didn’t go in there with high hopes,” he said. “We had a good meeting. We laid on the table some of our pressing issues, but just like the previous minister [JoBeth Coleby-Davis] we just didn’t seem to accomplish much, which was disappointing.”

He added that the meeting was one of few held with Mr Lundy in recent weeks, but said discussions had produced “nothing. Just a bunch of talk, talk, talk and promises”. Mr Butler accused Mr Lundy of placing too much weight on representations made by livery operators, while failing to act on what the taxi union says are clear legal breaches.

“He kept referencing a lot of stuff that the livery drivers have promised to do and steps that they’re going to take,” Mr Butler said. “The biggest disappointment is that he’s having talks with us, then he goes and has talks with NAD or the livery, and everybody’s telling him what he wants to hear. I said to him: ‘I’m not here to tell you what you want to hear. I’m telling you what the law says.”

Mr Butler further alleged that the Government has effectively chosen to support practices that the union believes violate existing regulations. “I think that this government has decided they will hang their hat on the wrong side of the law,” Mr Butler said. “Whether it’s right or wrong, they’ve decided that they were going to support livery drivers, even though it’s illegal.”

Mr Butler argued that the minister missed an opportunity to demonstrate decisive leadership by implementing relatively straightforward changes already supported by legislation.

“I thought he would have made a decision that would cause people to say, ‘This minister looks like he means business’,” he said. “But he hasn’t done anything. All he’s done is just meet. We talk, we take notes, and that’s it.”

Mr Butler said the union had hoped to leave the latest meeting with at least one concrete commitment that could be presented to members as evidence of progress.

“You can’t meet with the person who has the ability to affect the change, and you just sit there for hours meeting, meeting, meeting, and they can’t make a decision to change one thing,” he added.

Mr Butler’s comments came after he recently praised Mr Lundy’s willingness to engage, and said the minister had already addressed some initial concerns. At the time, the union agreed to suspend further demonstrations while giving the Ministry of Transport an opportunity to resolve the dispute.

The July 9 protest temporarily blocked vehicular access to the international departures terminal as taxi drivers accused livery operators of illegally soliciting fares inside the airport. During the demonstration, Mr Lundy proposed establishing a dedicated transportation desk inside the terminal staffed by Nassau Airport Development Company (NAD) personnel to better manage ground transportation services and reduce conflicts between the two sectors.

Mr Lundy also said the Government was reviewing proposals from both taxi and livery operators while seeking a solution that would protect visitors’ experience and the country’s tourism brand.

However, Mr Butler said the absence of concrete decisions following subsequent meetings has left the union with little confidence that voluntary discussions will resolve the dispute. “From here on in, we’ll be guided by the president of the Congress now and what we should do,” he said.