A nurse on Thursday suggested that all Portmore residents whose jobs require a daily commute into the capital should ring up their bosses at a prearranged date, telling them that they are sick and can’t make it into the office.

This was one of several proposals presented at a public meeting called on Thursday at the Lions Civic Centre to step up the protest against the rates being charged to use the toll road connecting Portmore to Kingston.

The current toll fees are $60 for cars, $100 for SUVs and $200 for trucks and buses.

The meeting was organised by the three umbrella citizens’ associations in Portmore – the Portmore Joint Council, the Greater Portmore Joint Council and the All Hellshire Leadership Council.

“I think all of us in Portmore need to get together and organise a sick-out,” the nurse told the meeting.

“One day all of us just don’t go to work in Kingston and cripple the system.

“Sick don’t have to mean physically sick, it can mean ‘sick of’…” she added.

Another suggestion from the nurse which, however, found currency with the residents was the call for the organisation of a ‘$1,000 toll day’. The plan calls for residents to show up at the toll booths with $1,000 notes in an effort to clog the toll plaza.

A number of residents were in favour of using $1 coins instead of paper currency, while some angry residents told the meeting that they were in favour of more drastic efforts to convey their feelings about rates.

One resident, for example, suggested that motorists drive their vehicles out to the Portmore toll plaza and use them to impede the flow of traffic.

“Is time fi stop talk, is time to take action. We don’t have to burn down anywhere.but is time to take a stand. I am willing to drive my car over to the toll plaza and park it in front of the area and clog up the whole thing” the resident said.

But guest speaker Wayne Jones, president of the Jamaica Civil Service Association (JCSA) cautioned against such forms of civil unrest.

He noted that under the toll concession agreement, the government was obligated to compensate Trans-Jamaican Highways Limited for losses caused by civil unrest.

“Civil disobedience won’t work because all that will do is cause the toll operators to sit back, put up their feet and collect from government. Under the toll road concession agreement the government has to pay for the losses caused by civil unrest. What we have to do is find a way of attacking their bottom line because they are attacking our bottom line,” Jones said.

Local environmentalist Peter Espeut also addressed the meeting. He noted that based on his observations, people in Clarendon were carrying out a successful, unplanned boycott of the Caymanas to Sandy Bay leg of Highway 2000.

With the success of this unplanned boycott, Espeut said, the boycott being carried out in Portmore was destined for success.

As the meeting concluded, the residents were asked to support the following actions being spearheaded by the Portmore Citizens’ Advisory Council (PCAC): –

. A further boycott of the toll road despite the start of the new school term.

. Abstain from purchasing t-tags, where taking the toll road could not be avoided.

. A petition to Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller asking for a reduction of the toll.

. An impromptu demonstration.

. A $1,000 toll day

The residents were also asked to come out and sign a declaration, dubbed: Procla-mation 2006: Declaration for the right of passage to their home, which would then be sent to the Prime Minister.