Business groups, economist warn against prolonged maxi strike

An­drea Perez-Sobers

Se­nior Re­porter

an­drea.perez-sobers

@guardian.co.tt

The eco­nom­ic ef­fects of the maxi-taxi strike in Trinidad yes­ter­day are be­gin­ning to emerge, with busi­ness cham­bers warn­ing that a pro­longed dis­rup­tion could re­duce pro­duc­tiv­i­ty, af­fect cus­tomer traf­fic and place ad­di­tion­al fi­nan­cial pres­sure on work­ers and fam­i­lies.

The Con­fed­er­a­tion of Re­gion­al Busi­ness Cham­bers (CR­BC) is mon­i­tor­ing the sit­u­a­tion close­ly as maxi-taxi op­er­a­tors on sev­er­al routes with­drew ser­vices yes­ter­day, forc­ing thou­sands of com­muters to seek al­ter­na­tive trans­porta­tion.

The CR­BC not­ed that the maxi-taxi sec­tor plays a crit­i­cal role in mov­ing work­ers, stu­dents, con­sumers and goods across the coun­try and warned that any ex­tend­ed in­ter­rup­tion would in­evitably af­fect eco­nom­ic ac­tiv­i­ty.

“Some busi­ness­es are al­ready re­port­ing slight chal­lenges with em­ploy­ee at­ten­dance and de­layed ar­rival times. It can cause re­duced cus­tomer traf­fic and lo­gis­ti­cal dis­rup­tions,” the or­gan­i­sa­tion stat­ed.

The cham­ber warned that small and medi­um-sized en­ter­pris­es could be par­tic­u­lar­ly vul­ner­a­ble be­cause of their lim­it­ed op­er­a­tional flex­i­bil­i­ty and re­sources.

It al­so point­ed to the in­creased bur­den on com­muters who are now be­ing forced to find al­ter­na­tive trans­port, of­ten at sig­nif­i­cant­ly high­er costs.
“In­creased re­liance on pri­vate ve­hi­cles and route taxis may con­tribute to heav­ier traf­fic con­ges­tion, longer com­mute times, and re­duced ef­fi­cien­cy across the econ­o­my,” the CR­BC stat­ed.

The or­gan­i­sa­tion cau­tioned that if the in­dus­tri­al ac­tion con­tin­ues, the cu­mu­la­tive im­pact could in­clude lost pro­duc­tiv­i­ty, re­duced con­sumer spend­ing, sup­ply chain de­lays, and slow­er busi­ness ac­tiv­i­ty in key com­mer­cial cen­tres.

While ac­knowl­edg­ing the con­cerns raised by maxi taxi op­er­a­tors, the CR­BC stressed the im­por­tance of di­a­logue and a time­ly set­tle­ment.
“Sus­tain­able so­lu­tions are es­sen­tial to pro­tect both the liveli­hoods of trans­port providers and the broad­er na­tion­al econ­o­my,” it stat­ed.

The Greater Tu­na­puna Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce (GT­CIC) re­port­ed no­tice­able dis­rup­tions across its dis­trict, with sev­er­al busi­ness­es ex­pe­ri­enc­ing low­er staff at­ten­dance be­cause many em­ploy­ees de­pend on pub­lic trans­porta­tion.

The cham­ber in­di­cat­ed that the dis­rup­tion led to op­er­a­tional de­lays, re­duced pro­duc­tiv­i­ty, and staffing chal­lenges for some em­ploy­ers.

It al­so not­ed that some pre-schools and day-care cen­tres an­nounced clo­sures due to trans­port dif­fi­cul­ties, cre­at­ing ad­di­tion­al chal­lenges for work­ing par­ents.
While busi­ness­es have re­port­ed op­er­at­ing at re­duced ca­pac­i­ty in some in­stances, the GT­CIC in­di­cat­ed it has not re­ceived wide­spread re­ports of clo­sures di­rect­ly linked to the strike.

“Busi­ness­es have ex­pe­ri­enced fi­nan­cial im­pacts aris­ing from re­duced cus­tomer traf­fic, low­er pro­duc­tiv­i­ty, de­layed ser­vices, and in­creased op­er­a­tional chal­lenges,” the cham­ber stat­ed.

The or­gan­i­sa­tion ex­pressed op­ti­mism that dis­cus­sions be­tween the Min­is­ter of Trans­port and the Maxi Taxi As­so­ci­a­tion would pro­duce a so­lu­tion that min­imis­es dis­rup­tion to busi­ness­es, em­ploy­ees, stu­dents, and com­muters.

In Cen­tral Trinidad, the pres­i­dent of the Ch­agua­nas Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce, Bal­dath Ma­haraj, re­port­ed that the strike ap­peared to re­ceive mixed sup­port.
“It ap­pears as though the maxi-taxi strike in Ch­agua­nas was not ful­ly sup­port­ed,” Ma­haraj re­marked.

Econ­o­mist Dr Ralph Hen­ry warned that the dis­rup­tion high­lights the crit­i­cal role maxi taxis play in the na­tion­al econ­o­my.
“A large per­cent­age of the work­force de­pends on trans­port to go out to their jobs. A large per­cent­age of school chil­dren at pri­ma­ry and sec­ondary lev­els have to get trans­port to get to school and, of course, the teach­ers as well,” Hen­ry ob­served.

He not­ed that thou­sands of cit­i­zens re­ly dai­ly on the ser­vice and ar­gued that the op­er­a­tors face in­creas­ing fi­nan­cial pres­sures from ve­hi­cle loans, main­te­nance costs, and ris­ing prices.

He al­so point­ed to crime as a grow­ing con­cern with­in the trans­port sec­tor and sug­gest­ed greater use of mon­i­tored cam­era sys­tems along ma­jor routes to im­prove pas­sen­ger safe­ty and as­sist law en­force­ment.

The econ­o­mist cau­tioned that even a short dis­rup­tion car­ries eco­nom­ic con­se­quences.

“There’s lost pro­duc­tion. Once there’s lost pro­duc­tion, it means that GDP is in­deed im­pact­ed be­cause work­ers can’t get to work on time.”

He added that re­duced out­put in busi­ness­es and fac­to­ries ul­ti­mate­ly af­fects na­tion­al eco­nom­ic per­for­mance.

“We can­not af­ford it,” Hen­ry stressed.