Harbour Street craft vendors accuse association president of favouritism

WESTERN BUREAU:

SEVERAL CRAFT traders at the Harbour Street Craft Market in Montego Bay, St James, are crying foul over allegations that they cannot peddle their wares due to preferential treatment to other vendors from their in-house association representatives, as well as longstanding poor conditions at the facility.

The Gleaner visited the market on Thursday and spoke to craft vendors who adamantly declared that their association’s president, Carol McLennon, has not been giving adequate representation on their behalf.

Hopeton Anderson, a vendor who has been in the craft trading business for 25 years, alleged that only selected persons from among the market’s 254 craft traders are allowed to go with McLennon and other association representatives when cruise ships dock at the Montego Bay Freeport Pier.

“You have the ship that we need to go to, and 254 of us have shops in this market, and is only one set of people can go in and there is nobody to say ‘stop this’. From the last president died, it has been two years and up to now I have not gone down there one day yet,” said Anderson, making reference to the previous association president, Melody Haughton, who died in November 2021.

“If you have a meeting, they are quick to shut you down, they do not want to hear anything from you. You cannot be voting for people and yet you cannot work with them,” Anderson added.

That statement was backed by Perline Grinion, another craft vendor of 51 years’ experience, who said that efforts to address those reports, as well as to resolve longstanding concerns such as infrastructural decay and lack of tourist patronage at the craft market, have been in vain.

“They [association representatives] came and let us know that if we want business, we better go out there and go look it for ourselves. So what do we have a representative in here for? Is them go to the ship every week, the president and her favourite few, and you cannot open your mouth, because if you open your mouth, you get sabotaged and you will never go back down there [to the port],” said Grinion.

“The ships come here every other week, and I believe the Ministry of Tourism should see to it that when the buses are coming from the pier, they should stop at the Harbour Street Craft Market first and let the tourists get a look. Instead, they pass us and go to the Whitter Village and Margaritaville and all over the place,” Grinion continued. “Plus, if you come in here, you notice the dilapidated conditions of the shops in here, which need to be painted up to highlight us in the market.”

But when The Gleaner spoke with McLennon, she rubbished the vendors’ accusations, insisting that she and her administration have been making efforts to get more business into the Harbour Street facility.

“The upkeep of the market is under the St James Municipal Corporation [StJMC], and we have not been getting any upkeep from before COVID-19. No infrastructure has been done, and we have made dialogue with them for them to do it,” said McLennon. “We are trying to mobilise the traders to pay their rent, because we do not want it to be blamed on us that we are not paying our rent so they [municipal corporation] cannot do anything.”

‘Unfair publicity’

Regarding the accusations that vendors in the craft market are being shown favouritism, McLennon would only say, “No, that is not happening, that is a false report, and I am not going to answer any more questions because this is unfair publicity,” before terminating the interview.

The Gleaner has been informed that a meeting is to be held for the Harbour Street craft vendors to determine the way forward.

Notably, the vendors’ concerns about the craft market’s leadership structure go as far back as 2013, when calls were made at that time for then-president Haughton’s removal from her post for her reportedly practising favouritism and only looking out for selected individuals. At that time, the vendors also accused Haughton of not highlighting the market and the issues being faced by the traders there.

However, in responding to those accusations during that period, Haughton blamed rogue elements for seeking to disregard the rules of the craft market.

Concerning the market’s rehabilitation, the Government previously spent $51 million to upgrade the facility, a project which took place over a four-month period in 2014.

In the meantime, when contacted, the StJMC’s chief executive officer Naudia Crosskill said that the municipal corporation would seek more information regarding the vendors’ complaints and issue a response thereafter.

Attempts were also made to secure a comment on the issue from Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett, who directed The Gleaner to speak with the Jamaica Business Development Corporation [JBDC]. However, while the JBDC admitted to having a craft policy, the entity said it does not have responsibility for craft markets themselves.