A band of 20 Novelo's bus drivers from Benque Viejo say they are ready to strike. When we traveled west today we found 20 men who say that their busses have been taken away, and though they're still getting paid, they say they are just waiting to be fired. But before that happens, they told me they're going to take things into their own hands with a demonstration. Why all the rage? We'll let them tell you.
Jose Villanueva, Disgruntled Novelo’s Bus Driver
“We’ve been here for 16 years and now with this new receivership they came and took away our buses which we all depend on to live. I mean they haven’t fired us but I believe that is the next step. I don’t know how much longer they will tolerate us sitting down under the garage doing nothing. They don’t come out direct and give you a good reason but they say that the bus in the morning, the early bus, is not making the money. The man said he was going to stop the run because the run only makes money from Belmopan to Belize City. So he said he was going to use those buses from Belmopan to Belize City. They took away these buses from us and now these buses are still running the same normal hour that we were running doing double trips a day. They said they would use it from Belmopan to Belize City but what we are seeing now is that they are using the buses to do the same run. It is the same buses with different drivers and it is affecting we the drivers. We want to know what will become of us in the next few weeks or so when they are tired of seeing us sitting down doing nothing. We don’t see the sense. If they fire us, all we want is for them to pay us our service which they do not want to pay either and that is another problem. They only want to recognize from February 11th of 2000 because they say we are Western Transport. We have never been Western Transport, Novelo’s the mother bus line bought over Western Transport equipment and not the drivers. So they got incorporated that same date. Our social security and everything is being paid under Novelo’s Bus Line from the day we began to work until today’s date.”
Alfonso Noble,
What are you all ready to do?
Jose Villanueva,
“Well we will demonstrate if we don’t get back our buses and we don’t get justice from these people.”
Roman Obando, Disgruntled Novelo’s Bus Driver
“The other point that they are thinking about is to fire us because they do not have intention of giving us back buses to drive and we are prepared to make a demonstration or whatsoever step we have to take because we are very united.”
Despite numerous attempts, we were unable to reach Novelo's representatives for a comment.