Kurt Riley, Junie Ranks Throw Support Behind St. James Bartender Protesting Unfair Job Dismissal
Party Animal producer Kurt Riley and veteran Dancehall deejay, Junie Ranks, have come out in support of Matthew Rodney, a St. James bartender, who says, he is now on a mission to ensure that tourism workers are unionized, following his unceremonious dismissal from the S Hotel in Montego Bay.
Rodney had, in early June, shared a video that subsequently went viral, of himself in a profanity-laced rant, accusing the hotel’s management of racism and abuse of power while declaring that he was dismissed on unfair grounds, accusations which the property’s owner Chris Issa has subsequently refuted.
However, Rodney, in what appears to be a one-man army took to the streets of Montego Bay this morning in what he said was a crusade to prevent the ongoing abuse of hotel workers across the island, who are subjected to unfair contracts, oftentimes face racism and classism, and have to endure unpaid overtime, no health plan and being lorded over by disrespectful foreign managers, among other things.
This morning after Irie FM shared a series of videos of Rodney on Jimmy Cliff Boulevard, protesting in front of the 120-room hotel, Riley and Junie commented on the matter and voiced their support.
“Fight fi yu rights my g. Tan up like those in the past before our time. Dem dead and get beat so we can have a so-called better life and they had kids n bills just like us today an dem neva care. Uno fi get vex a Jamaican woman. When she vex she nuh business who wah hear cause she dont care. Bullshit is bullshit. Simple as that. Di likki likke ine dem a wicked. Stand with uno co-worker,” Riley stated.
“Bro I been there inna real life. It is real. It happen to me more than one and I send all who did it back up dem mada. An mi neva give shit. I refuse to deal with that in my country or anywhere as a matter of fact. Hotel worker get shit fi pay and I bet you seh if all a uno stop. Just like a person i was working for, when I seh not a raas and leaving with no intention of going back, dem seh dem can pay me more money. Yu si dat? I still seh no and f*ck off. Just becuse mi a cut you way use money fi mi stay, so why when I been asking I wasnt getting it? My g mi a support yu,” Riley added.
Junie, for her part, said she was waiting to see the levels of support Rodney would get from his compatriots.
“Let me see how much of your brothers and sisters friends and coworkers coming to support you , I’m waiting , get up stand up, stand up for your right people 👍 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏,” she wrote.
The S Hotel, which is sister to the Spanish Court Hotel in Kingston, was opened in January 2019. The beachfront hotel was built by NCB Investments back in 1995 and was jointly owned NCB Staff Pension Fund and the State’s National Insurance Fund (NIF). The NIF had owned 49 percent of the shares and the NCB Staff Pension Fund had owned the remaining 51 percent. Back then, it was operated by the Superclubs resort group under the Breezes hotel brand, until its closure in 2009. It was sold to Christopher Issa, who is a an attorney-at-law, in 2011.
When Rodney’s video rant surfaced online, days later, the S Hotel had released a statement on its Instagram page, noting that the hotel and its other properties do not tolerate any form of discrimination or harassment against its employees nor guests, and that, among other things, all of its team members are Jamaicans.
“After carefully reviewing reports regarding an incident that occurred at S Hotel Jamaica in Montego Bay on June 4, 2022 between team members, one of whom became disgruntled, which involved hotel guests, we are aware of a smear campaign spreading on social media posted recently,” it had stated.
“We share this public statement denouncing these false accusations in which this former employee has made. He has sent his video to a blogger who continues to spread these vicious and harmful lies about our workforce, our team and community,” it added.
In his defense, Christopher Issa of Crissa Enterprises, under which the hotel operates, said Rodney had been working at the property and was on probation when he started fraternising with guests instead of making his interactions with them ‘Short and Sweet’, as was the hotel’s policy, according to a Gleaner report.
Issa had said that on the day that Rodney was dismissed, he saw the bartender gallivanting “with trays on his head, putting on a show for two female guests, while leaving the bar unattended”.
But Rodney had insisted in his viral video, that he did not act unprofessionally during his interaction with the guests and also objected to the manner in which he was approached by the hotelier.