Passengers waiting for bus services to resume yesterday expressed frustration, understanding, and apathy at the decision by BIU members to down tools for a portion of the day.

“What do you do?” shrugged Wallace Lee, 32.

“I was just working on getting a ride, seeing as there’s no bus. I’m not paying for a taxi so now I have to call the people I know that have transportation and hope one of them is willing to give me a ride home. I can’t always pay for a taxi when I can’t get home at some point. There should be a bus.

“I’m pretty used to it at this point. I know that at random points during the day they might go on strike. I just have to deal with it. It’s going to keep on happening. It’s been going on for a few years now, so at this point, what do you do?”

Jennifer Bean, 61, sympathised with workers and their need to stand up for the bar porters made redundant by the Fairmont Hamilton Princess.

“It shouldn’t have come to this because bartenders need bar porters. I know, I used to work in the hotel industry, and they need them because otherwise it’s too much work for the bartender and what they have to do.”

Asked if redundancies were to be expected in such an economy, she said: “Not bar porters. They’re too important.”

A 51-year-old woman, who asked only to be referred to as Cynthia, urged union workers to consider their fellow countrymen before downing tools.

“I understand that they have to down their tools, but at the end of the day you have your fellow Bermudians that depend on the bus, pay money for a bus pass, you have elderly citizens that need to get back to wherever they reside. You can’t strand people like that. You have to at least say: ‘Okay, there’s so many of us are going to down tools, but the rest of us are going to actually run buses to ensure that people get home.

“At the end of the day we all want to be able to get to and from our humble abodes without any issue. So, have consideration for your fellow Bermudians. I understand what happened is displeasing, but we can’t control another human being, so in the process don’t make the rest of your people suffer because you want to support a group. You can still support them, but also be considerate.

“What kind of impression are we leaving on people that are coming to Bermuda that are spending their hard-earned dollars to take a flight and come here? They want to be able to get around and not always have to pay a taxi driver to do that, especially if in their package they were able to get those seven day passes or whatever the passes are that come with the hotels. That’s not fair to them and we need their business just as much as we need the local business, the locals who also sow into this country. It’s something to consider before just downing tools and not worrying about your fellow Bermudians.”