Taxi protest fizzles at cruise pier
A planned protest by contract carriage operators against new security arrangements at the Ocho Rios cruise pier fizzled yesterday after some of the opponents to the measures broke ranks and worked with the system.
“The way how some a dem go on last night, how dem nah work and dem a go block di pier, me surprised fi see them a work like nothing nuh happen. Them bow to the system,” one of the dissenting bus operators, shouted from the Taj Mahal shopping centre entrance across the street from the road leading to the pier.
The contract carriage operators, from the Jamaica Union of Travellers Association (JUTA) and Maxi Tours, had opposed the new measures which require that they relocate from directly in front of the Ocho Rios pier to a new holding area about three minutes drive away at the town’s transportation centre.
They had objected to the new venue on the grounds that it was behind the Ocho Rios market.
On Wednesday evening, at a meeting with Tourism Minister Aloun Assamba and Transport and Works Minister Bobby Pickersgill, the operators said they would wait at the JUTA Ocho Rios chapter office at White River, about 20 minutes drive from the pier, to be called by radio under the new arrangement.
Jamaica and other cruise ports worldwide have been mandated by the United States Coast Guard, the International Council of Cruise Lines (ICCL) and the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) to enhance security.
The demand was triggered by the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on the US and other terrorist incidents and threats around the world.
In fact, not long after the bombing of the Pentagon and the World Trade Centre, a Port and Maritime Security Act went to the US Congress, authorising Americans to refuse entry to ships coming from a port which they consider to have “ineffective security measures”.
In keeping with the mandate, the island’s tourism authorities made the new arrangements last week. But the JUTA and Maxi contract carriage operators objected and threatened to protest yesterday, the implementation day.
But early yesterday morning, a large detachment of police, under the command of Assistant Commissioner Gilbert Kamika, the head of operations in Area Two, was at the pier to quell any potential disturbance. The police team received support from senior superintendents Keith “Trinity” Gardner and Cornwall “Bigga” Ford.
“We heard that the operators might be demonstrating and we are here to ensure that if that is done, then it is done in a peaceful manner,” Kamika told the Observer.
Many of the operators, particularly those with pre-booked tours, conducted business as usual and appeared unfazed by the new arrangement.
“We are the ambassadors of Jamaica,” said one of them. “All the marketing that the Jamaica Tourist Board is doing is nothing. When the visitors leave the ship it’s us who they interact with. We realise how important tourism is to us, but it seems the powers that be don’t realise that we are important to tourism too. The man dem start work because them don’t want to damage the name of Jamaica further and the visitors deserve a good time.”