JUTC employees strike

[Lazie]

Commuters who usually use buses owned by the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) will have to find alternative ways to get to their business on Friday morning.
This as drivers and conductors attached to the state owned bus company have withdrawn their services.
The workers, who are attached to the Portmore, Spanish Town and Rockfort Depots have gone on strike.
Several of the workers have gathered in front of the depots to protest against the management.
Union delegate Derrick Williams told RJR News the workers will remain off the job until the JUTC management changes aspects of the redundancy programme.

"Well as soon as we can get some justice because this is the worse that JUTC has ever been. The turnaround that the present administration expects...I don't think it is being done properly," said Mr. Williams.
"They are arrogant...this can't be good because in sorting out people you can't be doing these sort of things. There is no respect for the workers,"
And the University and Allied Workers Union (UAWU) on Thursday confirmed it has received a letter from the company advising that 236 employees will be laid off.
Drivers, conductors and bus cleaners are among those who will be sent home.

UAWU Vice-President Clifton Grant said questions have been raised about the cuts in light of plans by the JUTC to hire more than 400 new workers.
He told RJR News that letters have been sent to the Ministers of Labour and Transport seeking their intervention.
Mr. Grant said the union is also suspicious about the length of time the workers will be off the job.

"Thursday they indicated in a letter they were going to lay off employees for 119 days which is cause for concern and whether or not the management's intentions are objective and really taking into account the process of whether or not they want to circumvent the law...it doesn't look as if it is good practice," said Mr. Grant.
When our news centre contacted Minister of Transport Mike Henry for a response Thursday night he referred us to JUTC Chairman Douglas Chambers.

However, Mr. Chambers could not be reached for a comment.
Earlier this year the JUTC made more than 300 positions redundant.
The company said it would operate with a reduced work force until it is able to increase its complement of buses.

[Lazie]

I recall when the MTA striked, their union rep was sent to jail. Fine the UAWU and lock up all the union rep. What the fock dem want? Conductress pon a bus wid a cashless system?

[Lazie]

JUTC Chairman to meet with unions

The Ministry of Transport has intervened in the dispute at the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) which led to a strike at the company Friday morning.
Scores of commuters were left stranded as drivers and conductors withdrew their services to protest against another round of redundancies.
When RJR News contacted Transport Minister Mike Henry he indicated he was on his way out of the island.
But he confirmed that his Ministry would try to settle the impasse.
"(I received a letter from the union at 6.30pm yesterday) after I came off a road tour. I was only able to read it on the way to the airport this morning but I've spoken to the Chairman (of the JUTC) and I've asked him to meet with the Union," said Mr. Henry.
Director of Communications Reginald Allen said he is arranging a crucial meeting.
"The Minister has mandated the Chairman, Mr. Chambers to meet with the unions and I have also had dialogue with the Finance Ministry which has a part to play because the JUTC is in a situation where subsidizing and support from the government, especially the Finance Ministry is critically,' said Mr. Allen.
On Thursday, the JUTC announced that more than 200 positions will be made redundant.
Drivers, conductors and bus cleaners are among those who will be sent home.
Earlier this year the JUTC made more than 300 positions redundant.
The company said it would operate with a reduced work force until it is able to increase its complement of buses.
It also said it is moving towards buses operated solely by drivers.

Workers treated with contempt
Several angry workers of the JUTC gathered at the Twickenham Park Depot in Spanish Town, St. Catherine to protest against the way they had been terminated.
The presence of Chairman Douglas Chambers infuriated the workers who demanded that he resign his post.
One woman had to be restrained as she threatened to get into a physical battle with him.
While that was happening, a nonchalant Mr. Chambers sat just a few meters away smoking a cigarette.
One worker complained that the JUTC's management does not respect the workers.
"If you want to get rid of people, you do it in a better manner ... you don't just go and put a list on the notice board which says effective immediately, these people no longer work here and you don't have any dialogue with the people.
That's rude. I am willing to go but give me my redundancy money," said a worker at JUTC's Twickenham Park depot.

Remove Chairman or JUTC will collapse -Roberts
President of the Union of Clerical Administrative and Supervisory Employees (UCASE) Danny Roberts is calling for the removal of JUTC Chairman Desmond Chambers.
According to Mr. Roberts, Mr. Chambers is responsible for the tension at the bus company.
"Because of his continuous disregard and disrespect for workers and for the collective labour agreement and our labour relations code it does not auger well for the government to continue with a MOU if it continues to have the Chairman preside over the JUTC.
It will inevitably lead to the collapse of the company, said Mr. Roberts.
He also confirmed that 100 JUTC workers attached to his union are also being laid off.

[Lazie]

Termites at work. The gov't need to stop the pus.syfooting with the JUTC and Air Jamaica employees. 30 million in fares guh missing every month and dem a strike cause people a get laid off? Only in Jamaica. Wha yuh say Mosiah ... Poppy Show country?

[Karl]

Termites at work. The gov't need to stop the pus.syfooting with the JUTC and Air Jamaica employees. 30 million in fares guh missing every month and dem a strike cause people a get laid off? Only in Jamaica. Wha yuh say Mosiah ... Poppy Show country?

I thought there was only one Lazie on the board? ..the same one who spoke about need to employ more workers because the poor could not take it any more?

...now Karl said you would have to accept a spike in inflation as money would have to printed to employ even more workers than the PNP had on the books...to ease SOCIAL UNREST!

The matter of what these workers should do is for another post or a re-read of past posts.

I said Brucie would, as Seaga did, lay-off tons of public sector wrokers...and be at the head of a 1 term government...as he shrinks the workforce!

Anyway 18 monts nuh cum yet!

[Assasin]

When did Bruce lay off the tons of workers?

Didn't Peter Phillips started the cashless system?

[Lazie]

I thought there was only one Lazie on the board? ..the same one who spoke about need to employ more workers because the poor could not take it any more?

...now Karl said you would have to accept a spike in inflation as money would have to printed to employ even more workers than the PNP had on the books...to ease SOCIAL UNREST!

The matter of what these workers should do is for another post or a re-read of past posts.

I said Brucie would, as Seaga did, lay-off tons of public sector wrokers...and be at the head of a 1 term government...as he shrinks the workforce!

Anyway 18 monts nuh cum yet!

Karl, you've proven that you shouldn't be taken seriously. Of course I said employment should be provided .... but not what you're defending. The JUTC has been overstaffed, losing millions per month. If you cannot understand the need for efficiency, then I can fully see why you wanted Portia for PM.

When unuh nuh understand .... ask somebody fi explain.

[Karl]

Karl, you've proven that you shouldn't be taken seriously. Of course I said employment should be provided .... but not what you're defending. The JUTC has been overstaffed, losing millions per month. If you cannot understand the need for efficiency, then I can fully see why you wanted Portia for PM.

When unuh nuh understand .... ask somebody fi explain.

btw - I spoke in a general way using the JUTC as an example...
...however, since the JUTC is where you put the focus, let me use my Shady Pines memory and remind you that specific to the JUTC my argument was - the system was lousy and rather than lay off the employees - train them to provide the needed coverage and provide the needed services....in other words create a good JUTC transportation entity.

...not unlike the same argument I made for Air Jamaica. My thoughts start from the premise that inherently both JUTU and Air Jamacia will, even operating at maximum efficiency, if providing the very best of services for movement of persons is the overriding aim, they shall in the long run never make a profit.

...but that aside...you, me and everyone on this board acknowledged under-employment, unemployment and the turn out of the huge hoards at the end of each school year added to the increasing pressure with the society.

What did I say? The JLP will come in...if their history is anything to go by...with the 'fix' of making government and quasi-gocvernment bodies leaner and meaner. Our current situation demands not lay-offs, but putting more people to work. In my mind, I here put more and moore people to work - retrain and make more efficient to deliver quality services + increased efforts at regentrifying villages, towns and cities...modernise utility services, roads, etc. A massive social intervention...I pointed out the price. Increase inflation...but on the flip side a safety valve opened...pressure value opened...and the benefits of a society whereby it is easier to do business and for investment doillar inflows. The last plus was putting in place and encouraging good management in all areas.

That reduction of numbers of those with jobs...those who can survive and padding the numbers of those without hope seem to me to be nonsense policy and a sure guarantee to one term government.

[Lazie]

Did you read the article? You missed the part about 30 million in fares gone missing every month? Suh wha dem must duh? Keep the 2 foot puss dem? Stop mek yuhself irrelevant nuh KArl?

When it comes to certain things, mi naah guh argue wid unuh cause, as comrades unuh ago find something fi bicker bout. Under your gov't a pure corruption gwaan a JUTC, the man dem come a clean it up and the termites a mek up noise. Notice who are the union reps? Termites at work.

Lock it dung .. fire every focking soul and start clean the next day. Keep out the unions cause dem causing more problems than anything else. Mi a hear Wrong Jungle a mek up noise yesterday pon radio .... where the hell was he when almshouse a gwaan? And to think there are idiots who want the asses back inn office?

[Lazie]

Heat at JUTC meeting

Threat to shoot bus company chairman brings abrupt end to talks
Saturday, June 07, 2008


A meeting to resolve the strike by some Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) employees ended abruptly yesterday when male workers allegedly threatened to shoot the company's chairman, Douglas Chambers.

The meeting, which was being held at the Ministry of Labour in Downtown Kingston between JUTC management, representatives of the University and Allied Workers Union (UAWU), the Union of Clerical, Administrative and Supervisory Employees (UCASE) and Ministry of Labour officials, was eventually moved to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in New Kingston late last night.
This Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) worker sings Daniel's God surely will deliver as she and her colleagues wait on the premises at the Twickenham Park depot in St Catherine yesterday, after receiving their lay-off letters when they showed up for work. (Photo: Lionel Rookwood)
Yesterday, drivers and conductresses stopped working to protest against the company's decision to send home 250 workers.
An official source told the Observer that the meeting ended when some of the 150 workers who attended became boisterous, resulting in the JUTC management leaving without any further discussion.
Communications manager in the transport ministry, Reginald Allen, confirmed that the meeting ended prematurely after issues unrelated to the ongoing strike were raised and later escalated into physical confrontation.
Stranded commuters sit in a section of the Half Way Tree Transportation Centre yesterday, after JUTC workers withdrew their service to protest the company's decision to send home 250 workers.
"JUTC chairman Douglas Chambers, who was the target of the assaults, eventually left the venue with his team members as a result of the aggression that was coming from some of the over 150 company employees who attended the meeting," Allen said.
However, following that failed meeting, junior minister for labour and social security, Andrew Gallimore, called a second meeting between the JUTC management and the union representatives in an attempt to resolve the strike.
However, Allen said, Chambers made it clear that the talks would only resume if the workers returned to work.
Following the breakdown of the earlier meeting, Allen said the company's Rockfort and Spanish Town depots remained closed up to late last night. The Portmore depot, however, was operating normally.
"The Rockfort complex had been closed by the company based on information reaching the management of plans to disrupt the service and damage buses in downtown Kingston," said Allen.
He said that at Spanish Town, early morning agitation among some of the company's employees escalated and a bus which was exiting the depot was damaged, prompting the closure of that complex.
Yesterday, drivers, in solidarity with the conductresses who were laid off from work for 119 days, parked their buses and converged at the gates of the three depots in St Catherine and Kingston.
Union delegate Fitzgerald Lewis told the Observer that while the union has no problem with the company's decision to cut its workforce, proper procedure as laid out under the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) must be followed.
He said if this was done, the company would have had to write to the MOU monitoring committee informing them of the decision to lay off the workers, following which the committee would have met with the company and the union.
The workers said many were not notified of the lay-off until they showed up to work on the staff bus at 3:00 am. "Those whose names were on the list were turned back through the gate at that time of the morning," a worker said.
Lewis said if the company is letting the workers go they should be made redundant and given whatever remuneration is due.
"If this is the case, pay off the people and let them go home," he said.
One conductress at the Twickenham Park depot said she didn't object to being sent home but wanted to be made redundant so she could receive a full remuneration package.
"I came in and signed this morning and is that time the dispatcher telling me that ah not supposed to go on the road because me name is on a list," she said, adding that they do not know what will happen after the 119 days since there would be no need for their services if the buses are converted to single operator units.
"Dem need to pay we off and let we go," said another conductress.
Another worker burst into a lively chorus, singing: "Daniel God surely will deliver" even as her colleagues insisted that the JUTC chairman must go.
The Observer was also told that the mechanics at the Portmore depot went on strike after a confrontation with a new supervisor. Another worker was heard telling those at Rockfort not to agree to be sent to the Portmore depot to work.
The angry workers said their grouse was not only about the lay-offs but the deductions which were taken from their salaries but have not been paid over to the respective institutions.

[Lazie]

Maudib always talk bout one good parent .. look like him know wha him a talk bout. "It ain't over baby!"

[Assasin]

The JUTC workers them can go train and become nurses. Did you realise that since free healthcare there is a shortage of nurses?

Thre is also a slew of Hotels coming on stream so they can retrain themselves. If that is your argument.

[Muadib]

At what point do you determine that a system is simply a welfare program out of control ?

How do you determine when you have long passed the safety valve model and gone into gorging on the public purse ?

Why would it be a one-term Govt ? If the PNP did the same thing, what would happen ?

Now you see the weakest link... fix up yuh party....get rid of the mendicants and termites... is long overdue that unnuh get it right... damn.