JUTC urges calm - Buses to roll out today on phased basis following drivers’ strike over colleague’s killing
Published:Wednesday | September 25, 2019 | 12:11 AMAndre Williams/Staff Reporter
As its drivers withdrew their services to protest the killing of a colleague and death threats reportedly made to other workers, the state-owned Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) has appealed for calm.
The transport sector in the Corporate Area and sections of St Catherine was thrown into a tailspin as hundreds of stranded commuters were greeted with the unwelcome news of the bus drivers’ strike action from as early as daybreak.
Tensions have been running high following the deaths of a taxi driver and a JUTC employee in separate incidents in the Corporate Area between Monday night and early Tuesday morning.
The taxi driver has been identified as 37-year-old Akeeno Britton, otherwise called ‘Bubinile’, of a Kingston 10 address, and the deceased JUTC employee is 34-year-old Mikkel Donaldson, otherwise called ‘Biggs’, of Bull Bay. It has not been established whether the incidents are connected.
Britton allegedly met his demise at the hands of a JUTC driver, who is currently in police custody.
As JUTC bus operators withdrew their services, the company’s corporate communications manager, Cecil Thoms, sought to pacify the situation.
“They (drivers) are concerned, and rightly so. I have said to the team before that tensions are high when something like this happens. It is unimaginable that a member of your family should go out and then somebody should inform them that they are dead ... . Tensions are high and persons have a right to feel that way, but we are appealing for calm in the face of all of this and what is taking place,” he told The Gleaner.
“The two incidents were tragic and we have moved to address same, and we have asked our drivers for what we call a cooling-off period. We had an emergency meeting with pretty much all our stakeholders to include the drivers, their unions, and members of the Police High Command at the level of deputy commissioner, and ministry officials.”
STILL FEARFUL
Plans to resume operation at 5 p.m. yesterday were halted as drivers were reluctant to return to their duties, saying that the threat level remained high.
Thoms said the company would be having a phased roll-out of buses this morning, starting with areas they believe it is safe to do so.
At 5 p.m. yesterday, the gates to the Half-Way Tree Transportation Centre in were closed and the facility and outskirts were being monitored by the security forces following a bomb scare.
A policeman at the scene told The Gleaner that the search of the facility came up empty.
Schools were also closed earlier than usual yesterday after the education ministry advised administrators to assess the situation.