Web shop businesses were temporarily closed until 2 p.m. yesterday as more than 1,000 Vote Yes supporters, workers and web shop owners united in Rawson Square to put a face to the web shop businesses that could be regulated or shut down following the January 28 gambling referendum. Several web shop owners who led a march from Market Street to Rawson Square said the intent was to highlight the thousands of jobs that need to be protected. Cheering onlookers on both sides of Bay Street were clad in Vote Yes T-shirts.
Many of them held up placards broadcasting that message. FML Group of Companies CEO Craig Flowers said it was time for web shop owners and their workers to come out and openly demonstrate their position. Flowers said a reduced representation of their full workforce and supporters were brought to Rawson Square. "We would have asked some of our people not to come because the police gave us a limit as to what they would be able to control," Flowers said. "The turnout is just what we imagined it to be. When we spoke of them in our discussions previously there was an enormous amount of doubt in the minds of so many of the supporters of the 'Vote No' campaign."
Island Luck CEO Sebas Bastian said countless Bahamian families depend on the jobs at web shops. "We are real," he told the crowd. "This is real and we have bills to pay too. "Our children want to go to private schools too and for far too long we have been discriminated [against] in our own country. "It is time for a change and we want the same benefits extended to foreigners. On January 28th, mark your 'x' in history as this will go done in history as we know it." Flowers added, "If [anyone in the crowd is asked] they will have a story to tell about their jobs, about their children and families, and it is not for me to speak to, but for them to tell their story."
Craig Woods, an Island Luck security guard of seven months, told The Nassau Guardian he marched to protect his income, which keeps food on the table for his family. "This is how some of us feed our children," Woods said. "We can't go to the church and say give me $900 for $1. "The pastors, even though they are against it they are not doing anything for us, so we have do what we have to do." Taekwon Wilkinson, an employee of Asue Draw, said the government needs to really recognize the people who will be affected by its decision. "I decided to march this morning to save my job and in order to pay my college fees," said another employee of Whatfall.
Davon Jones, principal of Whatfall, which employs 170 people, said the industry directly and indirectly supports thousands more Bahamians besides those who marched. Pete Deveaux, CEO of Island Game, said web shop owners have now shown Parliament and the country the men and women the industry directly supports. Vote Yes Campaign Coordinators Philip Galanis and Theresa Moxey-Ingraham said it was important for web shop businesses throughout New Providence to close their doors yesterday in order to publically display the scope of the industry. "They closed their operations in order to make certain they were here," Galanis said.
"...We have not seen a crowd like this in 30 years and I think it is going to be a very, very momentous day for the industry." Rev. Dr. Philip McPhee of Mt. Calvary Baptist Church was also among the crowd of 'vote yes' supporters. He also said the Bahamian people needed to see the strength and numbers of those employed by web shop businesses.
"I am sure The Bahamas is now totally aware of the power of the people in terms of showing they need their jobs, and the government must be very careful in terms of what they say or do in reference to maintaining the jobs of these Bahamian people," he said. "These people voted for a change, voted for a government to look out for [them] and I believe the prime minister we have now, will do just that."
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