And while the Transport officials held a press conference upstairs, downstairs, Novelo’s – or National Transport - had assembled a good sized crowd for a protest. It had the flavour and orchestration, if not the overall muscle or mass of a well oiled political protest. And of course, they came by the busloads, employees, families and supporters of National to rail against the proposed cuts in the runs that the bus company provides to the country. National says its runs are being cut form 175 to 18, and it will have to lay off hundreds of workers, and most painfully, it will have to close down it’s home base terminal in Benque Viejo – all because of the new zoning policy – which as we said, favours small companies. According to Philip Jones, the operations manager of National Transportation Services Limited if the plan of action does go through over two hundred of their employees will be out of a job.
Phillip Jones, National Transport
“We want to continue our runs. We have a small portion, we are one of the bigger companies in the country so we would just like to ask the Minister of Transport and the Prime Minister to just allow us to continue run what we’ve been running. We are not asking for anything more. We have obligations to our staff to ensure that their livelihood continue and their families have security and I mean two hundred and odd employees, that’s a huge cut for having employees lose jobs at a time like this and we have Christmas coming up again.
We are the only one that is really properly structured and we are a national bus company and by cutting runs we will no longer be a national company. We provide north, west, south, the rural areas in the city, so we provide everywhere possible at this present time and by you just dissecting us and just allowing us to one area then we’ll be losing more than 50% of our employees.”
Protestor #1,
“We want our jobs back again.”
Jacqueline Godwin,
You are a driver?
Protestor #1,
“Yes that’s right and all of us we are conductors and we have a lot of children so we need all that money so we can send our children to school.”
Jacqueline Godwin,
So if they do make this drastic cut in your runs…
Protestor #1,
“Then our children are the ones who will be suffering and things are really hard out here. Things are very expensive right now and if we lose our jobs then what are going to do. We put this government and now they are doing lots of things that we don’t need here. We need a government that give us prosperous in the future for all our children.”
Jacqueline Godwin,
Your husband is a driver?
Protestor #2,
“My father works for them.”
Jacqueline Godwin,
So how your family will be affected if they do cut the run?
Protestor #2,
“My sister and them depend on his pay.”
Jacqueline Godwin,
Why do you believe your company is being targeted?
Phillip Jones,
“Well as you in the past that there have been this rumor about the money transaction that wasn’t managed properly and there was a series of conflict behind that but what we are here right for now, we are here to represent National and we have over three hundred and sixty odd employees and we have at least 70 percent being affected by the outcome if the transport board continues to cut or dissect the runs and just allow us to one area. We are just here to ensure that our employees they are secure. I mean you have your families, you have your bills, you have rent right now, we are in some serious times right now. You have your mortgage, how will I tell employees and their families that, how will they pay if they don’t have a job tomorrow.”
Jacqueline Godwin,
How many drivers do you have?
Phillip Jones,
“We have about 365. That involves drivers, management, garage, supervisor, and the managers and that is a lot and you’ll take away 75 percent or 70 percent of that where will these people go in these times. You answer that question or I would like the Minister to answer that question. He has not met with us to discuss any alternatives for the restructure or assigning them to other areas or whatever. He has not met with us, we have tried many times but up to today we have not met with him as yet.”
Protestor #3,
“I am out here protesting because the bus industry is getting out of hand, people need to come together and get this thing straight. The Novelo’s have been around for ages and now they are doing this to them. We need to get this going the proper way.”
Jacqueline Godwin,
You’re a driver?
Protestor #3,
“I am a service advisor and what we do is to keep the buses in good condition. There are many buses on the roads that are not in good condition and Novelo’s have the best running buses on the road right now.”
Phillip Jones,
“I have my kids and I will do whatever it takes to ensure that they are satisfied and at least get three meals a day and get to school. That is our main concern and we have to emphasize that. This is beyond what has happened in past. We are talking present now, we have all these employees that are on our shoulder.”
And while Jones took the frontline downstairs, the Novelo brothers took front row upstairs at the press conference. They complained that the awarding of runs in the zones was arbitrarily and predicted that it will produce chaos and discomfort for commuters. Other, less outspoken operators in the room told us that the Novelo’s took advantage during the last government and that now it’s basically time for them to move to the back of the bus.
