BELIZE CITY, Thurs. Mar. 10, 2022– This week, members of the Belize Bus Association (BBA), after seeing their profit margins repeatedly slashed over the past few months due to constantly increasing fuel prices, and facing the prospect of even more drastic increases in those prices due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, voted to stage a nationwide bus strike in which the 38 bus operators who are part of the association will participate. The decision is said to be a direct response to the government’s perceived reluctance to offer some form of relief to these bus operators, even after a series of discussions between the parties that stretches back to a few months prior to the onset of Covid-19 and the change in administration following the 2020 elections. Having been given no indication that they will be provided with some type of relief, and seeing price hikes occurring on a regular basis in other industries, the bus operators feel pushed against the wall, and as such are now pushing back.
During an interview this morning, Ewart Metzgen, secretary of the Belize Bus Association, stated, “Just recently when we started coming out of the pandemic, we started meeting and talking again, and these issue started coming up by our members—that they are saying that the burden is too high with the cost of having to buy supplies to do the sanitation and all that GOB is asking operators to do. It’s taking a toll on our bottomline, and we just saw it fit to have approach them again and to bring the discussion up, whichin we have many issue in the industry that we need to sort out because of demands coming from GOB and the pressure coming on operators with this new master plan and the difference of them wanting to implement new buses and all that. And we’ve sat down on many occasion; we’ve spoke to them about this. It seems that most of the—we go into the meetings with them, they are there, they hear what we are saying, but they are not understanding what we are saying and it came to a halt on Tuesday when we had a final meeting with both Ministers in Transport Rodwell Ferguson and Mr. Usher along with the CEO and CTO along with two others from the department. “
He said that 5 of the major bus operators are members of the BBA, and in total, the members of the association control about 85% of the public transportation routes in the country, and he pointed to a number of issues that are making it difficult to operate within the industry—one being the entry of a new busline, Floralia. Without going into any detail, he hinted at a legal challenge currently lodged against the company and claimed the new entrant may be eyeing northern routes as part of its expansion strategy. However, the rising cost of operations and their shrinking profits have been by far the paramount concern presented by the operators during their discussions with GoB. According to Metzgen, their pleas to the government for support have seemingly fallen on deaf ears.
“The other issue was the high cost of fuel and that bus operators can no longer absorb the cost. It’s becoming too much of a burden for us, and we made a proposal for some sort of an increase to the bus fares to try and sort of balance off or alleviate the pressure that we are facing, and point-blank the Minister looked at us and told us that can’t happen and that only Cabinet can make a decision on bus fares. We told them we have the water taxis that have already taken up prices, you have grocery stores, everybody that uses transportation to move goods because of the cost of fuel has already taken up their prices. During the pandemic, the bus industry was one of those that was never ever looked at or given any assistance by the former administration, now this one,” he said.
“There has to be a breaking point somewhere. I mean, they have to come and meet us halfway, somewhere. I mean, we are willing to sit down and try to see how we can work this thing out, but when he told us that on Tuesday, we took it back to our members, and our members they tell us what to do, and we go by what our members tell us to do. I mean, we are only the messenger here, myself, Mr. Shawn, executive of the BBA, we go by what our member tell us to do, and we did what they told us to do yesterday, announced that we will strike,” Metzgen went on to say.
To prevent any type of preparation by the government that could minimize the impact and effectiveness of the strike, the BBA has not indicated when exactly they will go on strike, but has said that it could be at any time. A national bus strike will no doubt cause severe distress to users of public transportation and result in an added pinch on the pockets of the already cash-strapped bus operators. Metzgen said that the delay in the strike is also a short window for the government officials to come back to the table and work out a resolution.
He remarked that the cost of fuel is driving up the prices of everything in the country and insisted that there must be some way that government can ease the burden on the citizenry.
“We as the bus operators cannot take the continued increase in the cost of fuel, much less the rest of people who use cars to traverse to work or whatever. We have not only bus transportation; we have trucking. This is driving up the cost of everything in the country. I mean, there must be some way that government can ease what is taking place with the cost of fuel. We know it’s from an external source, but in-house, in the country, I mean, man, something must could be done, and they are refusing to budge. “ Metzgen said.
The BBA is requesting a 25% increase in bus fares to partially offset the increasing cost of fuel and other expenses that are eating away at the bus operators’ bottomline. He noted that they will not be making any profits with the 25% increase and that it would serve only to reduce the impact of the cost of their operations, given the high fuel prices.
“What we are asking for is just for us to continue to provide the service that the Belizean public needs out there, and I know that Belizeans, they themselves can’t afford a price hike, but come on, man. We have been suffering and taking the losses for so long, and it just cannot continue. We cannot continue to do so. “ said Metzgen.