The Tribune

By TANYA SMITH-CARTWRIGHT

tsmith-cartwright@tribunemedia.net

STRAW vendors are up in arms about the protracted closure of the Straw Market while accusing the government of having “no plan” for them while pandering to the needs of the country’s major resorts.

Rev Esther Thompson, head of the Straw Vendors Society, said since the COVID-19 pandemic called for the total lockdown of the Straw Market in March, no one from the Ministry of Tourism has been in contact with her or the vendors.

She told The Tribune they have been left on their own to survive on $100 a week in government assistance.

“We are concerned about our financial welfare,” she said. “The government is definitely not in contact with us. Not at all. Nobody is concerned about the financial welfare of the vendors. It is definitely not a good time for straw vendors.

“We were included in the unemployment plan. They started with $200 then they went down to $150 and now they are at $100. Who can live off $100? Straw vendors are taxpayers and I feel like straw vendors did a lot of the country because straw vendors help with the foreign reserves and we bring the new money into the economy.”

She feels like straw vendors have not been treated fairly during this pandemic.

“We should have had some better provisions, because what bill could we pay with $100 and have to eat and do everything out of it? Vendors have their light bills, their water bills, their mortgages; bills like everybody else. Vendors were struggling before the pandemic. I feel like the government should have given the vendors at least $300 a week.”

Rev Thompson feels there was never a plan for straw vendors and taxi drivers when the government decided to reopen the tourist market.

“They really have no plan for us,” she said. “The tourism sector is open for the hotels. It’s not open for straw vendors and taxi drivers to benefit. The sector is open, in my opinion, for the government and the hotels to benefit, but not the local entrepreneurs in the industry. Everything pertaining to the hotels are pre-arranged.

“The straw vendors need a seat around the decision-making table. If they had us around the table, we could at least talk to the hotels. They could have seen how they could have assisted us; tie us into what they are doing. It is really bad. If the government had consulted us, we could have created an international website where we could have sold our native products online. At least about 90 percent of our business comes from the cruise ship industry. We could have been doing something.”

She is also suspicious about the vacation in place/bubble programme some of the major resorts will utilise for guests once they reopen. This allows guests to move freely around the property and utilise on-site amenities but prevents them from leaving the resort until their stay is over.

“How could you open a country and leave the taxi drivers and straw vendors and all the small people out of it,” she said.

“Once those big boys (hotels) get started in this way, (vacation in place/bubble) they will always come up with something to continue in this way. They will come up with something to keep it that way.”