Straw vendors in the Nassau Straw Market on Bay Street are upset about new rules governing how they display their merchandise in the market, with some vendors claiming it is unfair.
According to the vendors, compliance officers from the Straw Market Authority met with them early yesterday morning, outlining that they must break down the extensions on the top of their stalls and remove merchandise from the bottom of their stalls.
Vendors said that the stalls alone do not offer enough space to display their wares, and items stored inside the booths do not sell.
"In my entire life I have never experienced [this]," said Wendy Nixon, who has been a vendor in the market for nearly 30 years.
"We always had some type of rules, but never like this. This is bringing us back to when Moses went to Pharaoh and asked to let his people go. Pharaoh didn't comply. These officers are worse than Pharaoh.
She continued, "We know if we came out of Egypt, should we be back in Egypt or [in] the Promised Land?
"They have a problem that they don't want us to be able to display our work in a neat fashion. We have to display our work in a way that the tourists can see and be able to buy."
Cheryl Brenan, a vendor for over 20 years said, "I would like to know why they keep on telling us that we must only display one of this and one of that in the shop. How do they expect us to make the money to pay the rent?"
Chairman of the Straw Market Authority Ron Pinder said he was surprised vendors went to the press with their concerns.
"I am really taken aback that they would have taken that approach, after I extended open doors [to them]," said Pinder yesterday.
"[I] met with them, met with the leaders and anytime they have any questions when I am passing throughout the market they would stop me and talk to me."
Pinder said he would not comment further and would bring the issue up during the authority's first board meeting, which was to be held yesterday evening.
Wendy Lightbourne, a straw vendor for over 30 years, said she won't comply with the rule.
"I have a medical issue [and] my shop has to be here to help me pay my bills," she said. "I don't think we need to move the [extensions] because we need space to display our work in this market."
Lightbourne noted that many of the vendors are upset and ready to fight as their livelihood is at stake.
Nixon said she wants to talk directly with the prime minister.
"We need to call on [Prime Minister] Perry Gladstone Christie... to come and see about our business because it is much too long now, May 7 has passed and we haven't heard anything from them," she said. "We only see puppets walking about. Since Perry Christie holds the puppet strings we need to hear from him. We need to hear from [Deputy Prime Minister Philip] Brave Davis. We need to hear from the persons that we elected to come into this market and stop oppressing us."
Vendors subsequently marched in the market, chanting "we will not be moved".
They also complained about the lack of fans or an air-conditioning unit in the market.
The $12 million market officially opened last December, more than 10 years after the old market was destroyed by fire.
There are 497 vendors in the Bay Street market and 103 in the Cable Beach market.

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