Thorne: Transport Board privatisation ‘follows path of failed sugar industry pledges’

Leader of the Opposition Ralph Thorne on Tuesday condemned the government’s decision to privatise the state-owned bus company and dismissed its claims of enfranchising workers, warning that the administration risks repeating the failures of the stalled sugar industry co-operative scheme that promised worker ownership but delivered nothing.

On the floor of the House of Assembly as it debated changes to the Road Traffic Act, the MP for Christ Church South said: “Government is telling the people of the country that they are going to enfranchise bus drivers by giving them some buses like how they enfranchised the agricultural workers in the sugar industry with the co-op arrangement which has stalled and now the member for St Philip South has to tell the people of Barbados if we are going to have a sugar cane industry in Barbados this year or the year after, because the co-op negotiation has fallen flat. 

“They came in here two years ago. I sat in here, and they boasted to thunderous applause that the workers in the sugar industry are now going to own the plantations and own the industry. What is the position today? Nothing! Nil! And the same thing is going to happen with the Transport Board. All of these big, empty promises. Bigger than the Transport Board buses that they just brought in from China.”

The sugar industry co-operative initiative, launched in 2021, aimed to transfer limited ownership of state-owned cane lands and the lone Portvale mill to a workers’ co-operative. Negotiations with unions and the co-operative stalled soon after, with no final agreement or clear operational model established.

Thorne also questioned why ministers had decided to divest the bus company first, then schedule stakeholder talks afterwards, claiming that electric buses would not be cost-effective for bus drivers to buy and operate.

As 35 new electric buses landed on the island last week, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport and Works Santia Bradshaw told reporters the administration will hold consultations with workers and other interested parties on the divestment, which she noted was still at a consultative stage.

She returned to this in the House as she outlined that the “enfranchisement model” will focus on “improving and modernising this economy”.

Bradshaw said: “We have made a Cabinet decision to allow for discussions with our stakeholders to take place, and those discussions are ongoing. I said it last week when we brought the 35 buses to this country with the Transport Board drivers driving them out to the Weymouth headquarters. I repeated the fact that we have no intention to stop the little old lady with her bags from being able to get to and fro. And to the people of St John as well, who he seeks to represent, we got them covered as well, and therefore, the school children are also in the net to be covered also.” (JB)