Businesses affected by minibus strike

Businesses in Kingstown were unquestionably affected by the strike action taken by the National Omni Buses Association (NOBA), Wednesday, and one business owner warned her employees who stayed at home that they would not be paid.

Manager of Bonadie’s Supermarket No 2, Paula Crichton told SEARCHLIGHT that the staff had previous warning about the industrial action and should have made alternative arrangements to get to work. While most of her staff made it out she insisted that those who stayed away would not be paid for the days they missed.{{more}}

She said that her business felt the effects of the strike as the usual level of supermarket shoppers was down.

Jean Johnny, Manager of Corea’s City Store also felt the weight of NOBAs protest. “Sales were definitely affected,” she told SEARCHLIGHT.

She however was pleased with the effort made by her staff that all made the necessary arrangements to get to work.

Even Courts Furniture store, a usual hub for window shoppers saw a marked drop off in the traffic through the store.

When SEARCHLIGHT spoke to purchasing manager Mark Isaacs and Branch Manager Pat May they said that the usual mid day traffic was non-existent.

Not even the “finger licking chicken” of KFC was immune to the effects of the NOBA strike.

KFC downtown branch supervisor Maria Hannibal said that sales were very slow. The branch opened at its usual 9:30 am but the place was “dead”.

The usual lunchtime delivery orders to school were zilch and she was expecting it to show significantly in the day’s intake.

Hannibal commended her staff for making the effort to be on time. Some walked from nearby villages to get to work, which she found to be admirable.

Meanwhile Karl Browne, Manager of the downtown restaurant Rainbow Palace told SEARCHLIGHT that he was watching the development closely to decide wether or not he would have to scale back on the amount of food that is being prepared following Wednesday’s slowness. He told SEARCHLIGHT that if the action continued for any prolonged period of time he may have to temporarily layoff a couple of his workers.