Public Transport Service Corporation (PTSC) bus drivers staged a protest on Tuesday, complaining of poor maintenance of vehicles.
The drivers and other staff represented by the Transport and Industrial Workers Union (TIWU) made their voices heard while outside the PTSC head office at City Gate,, Port of Spain.
Besides safety and mechanical issues with the buses the workers also pointed to health and safety violations.
According to a GML report, shop steward Kurlan Peters said: “These issues will affect the traveling public daily as they depend on these buses and we the workers are doing as much as we could to make sure that it is safe to carry passengers. We reach a stage that the management need to start to maintain these buses to keep them in a safe manner to carry the traveling public. This is all we ask.”
“The drivers will not be driving any bus that is not working properly or safe to go on the service. This means passengers will not use buses that will endanger their lives on the road,” Peters warned.
The workers and union are calling for talks with PTSC’s management to resolve the issue.
Peters said while the bus drivers will try their best not to disrupt the service they will not risk their lives or endanger citizens using the PTSC service.
“We are willing to hold on to the promise that we have 300 buses coming but the buses that we have right now we are asking the management to fix these buses so that we can carry the passengers safely,” he said.
(photo courtesy Guardian Media)