Business
Proposal to turn LIAT into essential service mooted in bid to stem industrial action
Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit says the time has come to make the regional airline, Leeward Islands Air Transport (LIAT), an essential service as the airline deals with a strike by its pilots that have led to several cancellations and flight delays.
Skerrit, speaking with the online Barbados Today newspaper, said that he was concerned that the regional travelling public was being held to ransom every time there is industrial action at LIAT, whose major shareholders are Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica and St. Vincent & the Grenadines.
Skerrit said it was frustrating for passengers to have to travel to the airport, in some instances long distances, only to be told that there were no services because the pilots are on strike.
“I don’t think we can build a region and a tourism product unless you address this particular problem. I am hoping that the matter can be resolved this evening,” he said noting however “this might just be a temporary fix and we need to find a permanent fix”.
He told the online publication that the permanent fix could be along the lines of an essential service, adding “I think there is a case to be made for that”.
LIAT pilots walked off the jobs on Tuesday last week, forcing cancellations and delays by the airline that flies to more than 21 destinations on a daily basis.
In a statement , LIAT said the airline said it held discussions with the Leeward Islands Airline Pilots Association (LIALPA), and that the company “has indicated its willingness to address any legitimate issues and has given a firm commitment that it will meet with LIALPA on Wednesday, in an effort to discuss the union’s concerns”.
Earlier this year, the main opposition Antigua Labor Party (ALP) was critical of proposals by two prime ministers from the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) that the aviation industry should be deemed an essential service.
In June, Antigua & Barbuda Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer and his St. Vincent & the Grenadines counterpart, Ralph Gonsalves supported a statement by then LIAT’s chief executive officer, Ian Brunton, that the aviation industry should also be classified as an essential service, with legislated restricted rights to strike.
Brunton said that tourism was the mainstay of the majority of the region’s economies and air services connect the countries of the Caribbean.
Gonsalves said a move to categorize aviation workers as “essential” should not be seen as an attempt to obstruct labor.
The Antigua Labor Party in its objection to the prime ministers proposal said that the proposal was an “attempt to deny workers the right to strike”. It said that Prime Minister Spencer, a former trade unionist, should take note that the LIALPA “has indicated quite clearly that it is not in agreement to designate aviation work as essential”. -(CMC)