A meeting to resolve the strike by some Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) employees ended abruptly yesterday when male workers allegedly threatened to shoot the company's chairman, Douglas Chambers.

The meeting, which was being held at the Ministry of Labour in Downtown Kingston between JUTC management, representatives of the University and Allied Workers Union (UAWU), the Union of Clerical, Administrative and Supervisory Employees (UCASE) and Ministry of Labour officials, was eventually moved to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in New Kingston late last night.

This Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) worker sings Daniel's God surely will deliver as she and her colleagues wait on the premises at the Twickenham Park depot in St Catherine yesterday, after receiving their lay-off letters when they showed up for work. (Photo: Lionel Rookwood)

Yesterday, drivers and conductresses stopped working to protest against the company's decision to send home 250 workers.

An official source told the Observer that the meeting ended when some of the 150 workers who attended became boisterous, resulting in the JUTC management leaving without any further discussion.

Communications manager in the transport ministry, Reginald Allen, confirmed that the meeting ended prematurely after issues unrelated to the ongoing strike were raised and later escalated into physical confrontation.

Stranded commuters sit in a section of the Half Way Tree Transportation Centre yesterday, after JUTC workers withdrew their service to protest the company's decision to send home 250 workers.

"JUTC chairman Douglas Chambers, who was the target of the assaults, eventually left the venue with his team members as a result of the aggression that was coming from some of the over 150 company employees who attended the meeting," Allen said.

However, following that failed meeting, junior minister for labour and social security, Andrew Gallimore, called a second meeting between the JUTC management and the union representatives in an attempt to resolve the strike.

However, Allen said, Chambers made it clear that the talks would only resume if the workers returned to work.

Following the breakdown of the earlier meeting, Allen said the company's Rockfort and Spanish Town depots remained closed up to late last night. The Portmore depot, however, was operating normally.

"The Rockfort complex had been closed by the company based on information reaching the management of plans to disrupt the service and damage buses in downtown Kingston," said Allen.

He said that at Spanish Town, early morning agitation among some of the company's employees escalated and a bus which was exiting the depot was damaged, prompting the closure of that complex.

Yesterday, drivers, in solidarity with the conductresses who were laid off from work for 119 days, parked their buses and converged at the gates of the three depots in St Catherine and Kingston.

Union delegate Fitzgerald Lewis told the Observer that while the union has no problem with the company's decision to cut its workforce, proper procedure as laid out under the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) must be followed.

He said if this was done, the company would have had to write to the MOU monitoring committee informing them of the decision to lay off the workers, following which the committee would have met with the company and the union.

The workers said many were not notified of the lay-off until they showed up to work on the staff bus at 3:00 am. "Those whose names were on the list were turned back through the gate at that time of the morning," a worker said.

Lewis said if the company is letting the workers go they should be made redundant and given whatever remuneration is due.

"If this is the case, pay off the people and let them go home," he said.

One conductress at the Twickenham Park depot said she didn't object to being sent home but wanted to be made redundant so she could receive a full remuneration package.

"I came in and signed this morning and is that time the dispatcher telling me that ah not supposed to go on the road because me name is on a list," she said, adding that they do not know what will happen after the 119 days since there would be no need for their services if the buses are converted to single operator units.

"Dem need to pay we off and let we go," said another conductress.

Another worker burst into a lively chorus, singing: "Daniel God surely will deliver" even as her colleagues insisted that the JUTC chairman must go.

The Observer was also told that the mechanics at the Portmore depot went on strike after a confrontation with a new supervisor. Another worker was heard telling those at Rockfort not to agree to be sent to the Portmore depot to work.

The angry workers said their grouse was not only about the lay-offs but the deductions which were taken from their salaries but have not been paid over to the respective institutions.