ST GEORGE’S – Officials of the Technical and Allied Workers Union (TAWU) on Friday walked out of negotiations aimed at finding a solution to the industrial action by employees of regional airline LIAT.
TAWU president Chester Humphrey warned that the go-slow by LIAT workers at the Maurice Bishop International Airport (MBIA) would escalate and that regional affiliates would be asked to throw their support behind the union.
Humphrey described the position adopted by the Antigua-based airline during the talks here “as totally ridiculous”, adding “it was clear they were not negotiating, it was clear that they were not prepared to uphold agreements which they made earlier”.
LIAT workers here have been on a go-slow since the start of the week, forcing the airline to either cancel regular scheduled flights or divert flights away from Grenada.
On Friday, an optimistic Labour Minister Glynnis Roberts said she hoped an agreement would have been reached to bring an end to the impasse.
““We have a proposal on the table. I have put a proposal on the table for both parties, and hopefully by Friday we would have an agreement,” Roberts told reporters after the first round meeting with all the parties late Thursday night.
The workers have been seeking to get the airline to provide a plan on how outstanding monies owed to them since l983 will be paid.
TAWU has not disclosed how much money is owed to the workers, but under the terms of the collective agreement, workers should have received EC$18 (BDS$13.20) for meal allowances plus overtime payment.
But general secretary of the Antigua and Barbuda Workers Union (ABWU), David Massiah, whose union represents LIAT staff in Antigua and is offering “moral support to LIAT workers in Grenada” said they were owed nearly EC$5 millions (BDS$37 million).
“We want our brothers and sisters in Grenada to know that we are standing full-square with them in this fight to get their just due in the longstanding dispute with the regional carrier,” Massiah said, noting that recognising the airline’s precarious financial situation, the workers had offered to accept two-thirds of the amount owed with the airline to decide on the manner in which the remainder would be paid.
Humphrey told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) that the dispute with the airline is “centred on two actual items.
“One, the extended hour. LIAT made workers work beyond the stipulated hour of work in the agreement by an hour in addition to which LIAT agreed before the minister to treat that as overtime . . . now where we are before the minister where LIAT had agreed on July 4 to present a payment plan, refuses to present a payment plan and now claiming what they had agreed to earlier . . . is now invalid and they are not prepared to make those payments.”
Humphrey said LIAT had indicated it is only prepared to meet arrears dating back to 2005, a position which he described “as entirely contradictory”.
“You cannot have an invalid claim and yet be prepared to make a payment on a claim of invalidity,” he said, noting that LIAT was also not willing to pay the meal allowance, claiming it was a mistake in the agreement.
Humphrey said his union had discussed the new proposals submitted by the Labour Minister and “we came in a spirit to make some compromise, but LIAT was not prepared to make any compromise or to concede on points to which they had already conceded and therefore we felt it was pointless continuing those discussions, they were going to lead to nothing and therefore we took our exit from the meeting.
“Where does that leave us? I am sorry to say but it seems the Grenada Carnival is in deep trouble because from here on we are going to intensify the struggle.
“We have no other option but to intensify the struggle and we will be calling on our regional affiliates for the necessary show of solidarity,” Humphrey told CMC.
There has been no public response from the airline to the latest decision by the union to escalate the industrial action. (CMC)
