J'cans demand jobs on new Parliament building

Jamaica is to get a new Parliament, and it will be designed by Chinese. But that is the extent to which many Jamaicans want the fingerprints of the Chinese to go on the country's lawmaking body. 

Amid outcry from local architects that they should have been given the job to design the new Parliament, labourers have sounded the warning that they will not sit back and allow Chinese workers to get jobs at the site while they are unemployed.

"We must get most of the work. It is our country so we must get most of the work,” Hazelin Wright, a vendor who sells outside Heroes Park, said.

Michael Beverly said that the Chinese labourers may have better work ethics than some Jamaicans, but said this should not be a reason for overlooking locals for construction and other jobs.

“You nah go have the Chinese them a rub out them hand migle and a bun bare ganja so them will work harder, but mi feel the work force can be 50-50,” Beverly said.

And while persons with whom THE STAR spoke yesterday were adamant that Jamaicans should be the ones building their new Parliament, they are mindful that this could carry back-breaking implications.

“Right now, the Chiney dem overwork people and don’t pay them enough because they don’t care about Jamaicans so the Government must do something to ensure that this don’t happen," Hazelin Wright said.

Milton Duhaney feels that the nation’s leaders have been guilty of neglecting Jamaica labourers.

“These people in Parliament are wasting time. They don't give small people no opportunity. That is why they carry in people from cross the oceans and threat them like kings while the poor people suffers,” Duhaney said.

The Government has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with China Construction Company of America (CCA) for the design concept for the new Parliament at Heroes Circle in Kingston