The government is moving ahead with divesting the Transport Board amid growing public opposition and establishing a new mass transit system — but only after detailed consultations with workers and other interested groups, Deputy Prime Minister Santia Bradshaw announced on Wednesday.
As the state-owned bus company welcomed a fresh batch of 35 electric buses at the Bridgetown Port, she told reporters that the process remains at a consultative stage and that the workers’ interests will stay central.
“Those discussions, as I said, are ongoing, and I’m not going to prejudice those discussions in any way,” Bradshaw said, adding that multiple meetings are often required when engaging stakeholders on major reforms.
Bradshaw’s comments put the accent on workers’ interests even as the trade union umbrella, the Congress of Trade Unions and Staff Associations (CTUSAB), has become the latest group to oppose the sell-off.
She underscored the need for time to allow meaningful dialogue: “I would want that certainly the Press would allow us the amount of time necessary to have full and frank disclosure with the stakeholders, allow them to ask the questions that are needed, allow for us if we have to tweak anything to be able to do so.” Bradshaw, who is also minister of Transport and Works, said the consultations are being conducted “taking all of the concerns generally into account as well”.
Bradshaw added that workers at the Transport Board must be the first to receive detailed explanations about how the divestment and new mass transit framework will operate.
“I think the public expects that dialogue will take place with the stakeholders or workers at the Transport Board,” she said, noting that many employees have given decades of service to the institution. “You have people who have been working for many, many years when Transport Board was initially established, and I feel that we owe it to them first and foremost, along with their representatives to have the conversations with them without prejudice from opinions of other people in the public domain, and I wouldn’t want to taint those discussions.”
The deputy prime minister said her position was rooted in respect for long-serving staff, recounting her recent attendance at a ceremony recognising employees’ years of service.
“It was certainly very touching to hear the stories of people who have given a life of dedicated service to the institution,” she said. “I owe it to those persons to conversate with them first and their representatives, and then we will come to the public when we are clear in our minds whether the proposals that we have agreed to at Cabinet, whether those proposals will go forward in their current form, or whether there will be modifications to those proposals.”
Bradshaw noted that Cabinet has already approved proposals for discussion with stakeholders and that little could be said publicly at this stage beyond what has been outlined in that document. She added, however, that Cabinet was resolute on its commitments regarding vulnerable groups.
“Cabinet made it clear that the most vulnerable in our society would continue to be protected. We will not interfere with our pensioners. We will not interfere with our school children, and we will not interfere certainly with these service persons, the police and stuff that are accustomed to being able to utilise public transport.”
She said the divestment of the Transport Board must be viewed alongside a broader commitment to worker participation and opportunity.
“So when we speak of divestment, we also equally speak of the enfranchisement of the workers of Barbados and the workers of the Barbados Transport Board,” Bradshaw said, adding that both concepts are closely linked. “While we divest on one hand, our intention as well is to enfranchise the workers of the Transport Board who have given committed service for decades to Barbados and public transportation.”
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