St Thomas residents eagerly await town centre
THE TOWN centre to be erected on the grounds which once housed the Goodyear factory in St Thomas, is intended to reverse an unemployment spell that was cast on the parish when the facility was shuttered nearly three decades ago.
This is the hope and stay of at least three ex-factory workers, who admitted that the old industrial unit served them well during their tenure. Two of these persons also shared that they were employed to the factory up until it was closed and have not sought employment elsewhere since.
With the long-delayed work on the Morant Bay Urban Centre set to finally get under way this month, the men expressed confidence that it will do for others what the Goodyear factory did for them.
WE MOURNED
“I loved the job. Back in the days as a Goodyear worker, people recognise you. I have headache for about three days when I found out it was closing, because I had plans to finish building mi house. The people of St Thomas mourned for this factory,” said Leroy Findlay, who was a part of the production team at the plant for some 15 years.
As he walked along bushy paths at the back of the dilapidated structure, the now 75-year-old man reminisced on the benefits garnered there, including starting his own home and financing his children’s education.
This is a reality he believes will be passed down to others by means of the new town centre, which he foresees will provide employment for hundreds of residents.
According to him, “Goodyear factory gave me a good start, and I know if this town centre comes it will give many others one, too.”
The assurance given by the Factories Corporation of Jamaica that the project will meet the 24-month completion deadline and that roadblocks causing the delay in start-up since the 2019 groundbreaking ceremony have been cleared, are good news to Mayor of Morant Bay Michael Hue, who shared that he greatly anticipates the positive impact that the project will have on the parish over the next few months.
Though equally excited by the promises, Norman Hinds, who worked as a front-end loader operator at the factory, shed doubt on the two-year completion date.
“That’s what I heard four years ago. They break ground about three times already,” he said.
Hinds, who now works as a tailor in Friendship Pen, told The Gleaner that his community, like the rest of the parish, continues to feel the brunt of the wasted plot of land at the Goodyear Oval.
“I can hardly see, but I have to sew for big and little and just give it to them for free, because they don’t have the money to pay me. So I really need the place to open up so they can start earning,” he said.
His long-time co-worker, 75-year-old Egbert Sibble of Duhaney Pen, although acknowledging the short- and long term employment opportunities that the new structure will provide, admitted that residents will need to prepare themselves to benefit.
“It’s good for young people, but if they don’t have any educational ability, it’s not going to have any use to them at all. They are going to have to do something else. Maybe in the first half they will employ a few of them for construction, but after that, when it comes to the book, then it not going to work,” he said, adding that he remains hopeful that lives will be changed.