Jamaican trade unions — definitely not the firebrand, sabre-toothed entities of the past — still surprised us on the proposed Montego Bay bypass that is going to push the Caribbean’s fastest-growing city into the development stratosphere.

Last week, Mr Vincent Morrison, the president of the Union of Clerical, Administrative and Supervisory Employees (UCASE), and Senator Kavan Gayle, president of the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union (BITU), found common ground that is worth noting here.

Both are in favour of the project and related proposals in a ministerial order requiring that Chinese firm, China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC), pay the workers involved wages similar to workers employed by local contractors under the Joint Industrial Council (JIC) for the construction industry.

This augurs well for the smooth development of the bypass.

As we all know, negotiations between Government and unions, touching anything to do with wages, are usually fraught with conflict and industrial disputes.

It is also worth noting that the usual clamour against bypass constructions, over fears that it would cripple the area’s economy, is largely absent regarding the US$220-million MoBay Perimeter Road Project, as it is officially called.

Indeed, on the contrary, what we have seen is impatience to have the road constructed, as evidenced by the roar of disapproval which greeted last year’s announcement by State construction company National Road Operating and Constructing Company Limited (NROCC) of a delay to 2022 that it blamed on the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The project consists of two segments — a 15km leg from Ironshore to Bogue Road and a 10km enhancement of the Long Hill bypass linking Montego Bay and Montpelier.

NROCC said it already has the environmental permit, the project is in the design stage until the end of 2021, and the company is acquiring land, conducting surveys, and engaged in community work.

The Government wants to declare the bypass a national development project, which would give the finance ministry more influence in the construction contract and could speed up the works.

The bypass, when it is ready, will be a godsend to the tourist capital, whose development is being choked by wildly chaotic traffic that sometimes brings the city to a jarring halt, robbing it of thousands of man-hours that it can never regain.

Traffic congestion has been a long-standing issue, as there is only one main thoroughfare connecting the east and the west — unacceptable in a city now being seen as the commercial capital of Jamaica.

Montego Bay is a thriving and progressive municipality that is fast developing a reputation as a major centre for investment and business in the Caribbean. In recent years, it has attracted massive investments in business process outsourcing (BPO)/call centre operations; construction and expansion of hotels; housing projects; construction of the Hospiten health facility; expansion of the Sangster International Airport; and upgrading of roads and bridges.

As the epicentre of Jamaica’s tourism industry, the city’s airport is one of the busiest in the Caribbean, and handles well over 60 per cent of all visitors arriving in the country. Clearly, the bypass can’t come too soon.