ST JOHN’S, Antigua, Wednesday June 16th, 2010 – Sickouts by LIAT pilots have caused major disruptions across the airline’s network, forcing cancellation of flights throughout the region and leaving passengers stranded.
The action represents the withdrawal of “work enthusiasm” which the Leeward Islands Airline Pilots Association (LIALPA) had threatened if management of the Antigua-based airline did not retract and apologise for statements made in a Monday press release, by midnight Tuesday.
“LIAT wishes to advise that there has been a disruption in its service as pilots throughout the network called in sick this morning. This action has resulted in the cancellation of LIAT flights so far today,” an advisory from the airline said.
“Affected passengers will be allowed to rebook without any additional fees. Passengers who no longer wish to travel as planned, due to the disruption, will be issued a full credit for future travel on LIAT,” it added.
LIAT has apologised to affected passengers for the inconvenience caused as a result of the pilots’ action and said it will issue further advisories throughout the day.
The pilots had said since Monday that they would “withdraw work enthusiasm” until critical outstanding matters are addressed by the shareholders, Board and management of LIAT.
LIAT subsequently responded with a press release expressing disappointment at LIALPA’s pronouncements.Apture™
But the pilots took issue with LIAT’s statement that in July last year, “all disputed issues between LIAT and LIALPA, including that of retroactive pay were discussed at a meeting of the Company’s three shareholder Prime Ministers held in St Vincent”, in reference to the decision to take the dispute between the two to arbitration. It added that “an agreement was reached between the parties on a course of action for resolving them.”
LIALPA said the issue of retroactive pay was never included and the LIAT statement was therefore false.
“LIALPA…further challenged LIAT’s management at the Tuesday morning meeting in Barbados to produce the evidence that such agreement was reached with regarding to retroactive pay. As expected, the management could not provide such an agreement because no such agreement ever took place,” it said.
Responding to LIAT CEO Brian Challenger questioning “the wisdom of initiating unwarranted industrial actions at a time when the regional and international economies are under such strains”, LIALPA pointed to strike action taken by Spirit Airlines workers over a three-year-old pay dispute; pending industrial action by pilots at Air Canada Jazz because pilots have been working for an entire year without a contract; strike action by British Airways cabin crew; and recent industrial action by air-traffic controllers in Barbados to protest retroactive pay and working conditions.
The pilots association noted that the problems that caused protests in those situations had existed for between one and three years. It said that in the case of LIAT pilots, disputes have being ongoing for some 12 years.
“The pilots are reminding the general public that they have showed restraint for far too long, especially in light of LIAT Management’s clear unwillingness to settle outstanding disputes amicably,” LIALPA said.
“Even the Company’s CEO acknowledged in his recent statement that the airline has ‘over the last few weeks been able to sustain enviable levels of on-time performance’. This clearly indicates the commitment being shown by the pilots, as they continued to go above and beyond the call of duty. However, this commitment is not forthcoming from LIAT’s Management.”
The association says it is “deeply saddened” at the CEO’s refusal yesterday to go back to the public and retract and apologise for the Monday statement.
LIALPA wants LIAT to pay all monies that are owed due to illegal deductions made from salaries, settle all retroactive public holiday payments, address concerns about the status of current pension deductions and sign off on a new contract immediately following the arbitration judgment.
“Anything less is unacceptable,” the pilots said.