Southern taxi leaders hold strike plans pending Vaz talks on fares and roads

ST ELIZABETH, Jamaica — Charles Powell, who leads the Southern Taxi Association, says he and his colleagues are weary of waiting, yet they will hold off on industrial action until they learn what comes from Monday’s session with Transport Minister Daryl Vaz.

Powell spoke on Monday as a possible strike hung over the sector. He said the minister had summoned every association president islandwide, which tied their hands for now.

“I told them that the minister called us to a meeting. All the presidents across the island, so we can’t go on a strike. We have to wait until after the meeting,” he said.

He added that without that summons, operators would have shut down service nationwide. “If he did not call us to a meeting, then the members would strike across the length and breadth of Jamaica. [We] are waiting to see what comes out of the meeting,” Powell said.

The gathering is set for 10:00 am at the transport centre in Half-Way-Tree, St Andrew, on Monday, May 18, 2026.

Powell said the Southern Taxi Association counts about 300 members. They are upset over climbing fuel prices, poor road surfaces, and a fare adjustment they say has been owed for years.

“We have several issues. The outstanding 16 per cent over the past two and a half years is one of the main issues; it is number one. The second is the road condition with the examiner from Manchester, Clarendon and St Elizabeth, every day of the week [and] the road condition is so terrible,” he said. He also urged authorities to show flexibility when vehicles are checked at the roadside.

Powell argued that harsh inspection regimes make little sense while highways remain broken. “We should never have in this time examiners…on the road inspecting the vehicle, because from Mandeville to Alligator Pond, coming down Spur Tree Hill, when you reach Gutters to Alligator Pond, there is road, but there are some manholes in the road,” he said. He accused elected representatives of letting repairs slide on that corridor.

He pointed to another trouble stretch. “The road from Santa Cruz to Black River through Holland Bamboo is in a deplorable condition. We cannot have an examiner when we don’t have a good road. The front-end part is triple [the cost]. Maintenance cost is so high on the vehicle,” Powell said.

He said pump prices are eating into take-home pay. “Whatever you earn as a taxi operator, over 60 per cent of that which you earn goes into gas daily, so you will find a lot of taxis on the road run out of gas or they park at the garage, because the [business] isn’t financially viable anymore,” he said.

Powell pressed the Government to honour the delayed increase and accused the minister of stalling. “All we are asking the Government to do is to give us that 16 per cent increase that they have for us over two years, and the minister is dragging his foot…Every time he says it is at the table. The table now has junjo (mildew). All the plates on the table have junjo now. We should now be going into another bargaining for another increase,” he said.