KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent, CMC—The Public Service Union (PSU) says its members on the Argyle Worldwide Airport (AIA) will take industrial motion subsequent week if the authorities don’t pay excellent monies owed to employees by April 12.
The union stated it will not repeat the error it made a couple of years in the past when it known as off deliberate industrial motion the evening earlier than it was on account of happen.
“We acknowledge and notice that our failure to take motion then resulted on this explicit dismissal conduct, this dismissal angle of the board and the administration,” stated PSU president Elroy Boucher.
“That’s the reason I’ve stated, and talking from the attitude of the employees, that the administration of AIA ought to be underneath no phantasm that if this matter just isn’t settled, there is not going to be disruption,” Boucher informed a information convention.
“There will probably be disruption. Might you make no mistake about it? That mistake wouldn’t be made once more.”
The PSU stated that the employees are owed increments relationship again to 2016. Nonetheless, they’ve determined to forfeit the fee of the sums for 2016 to 2018.
The increment for 2019, which amounted to 1.5 p.c of the employees’ wage, was paid in January 2023.
Due to this fact, the union stated it anticipated the retroactive part for the years 2020, 2021, and 2022, estimated at EC$40,000 (One EC greenback = 0.37 cents), to be paid and that it has despatched “quite a few letters and held quite a few conferences” with the AIA’s administration for 4 years, however the state of affairs stays unresolved.
Boucher stated that after commenced, the economic motion would proceed till “this grievously excellent matter is settled,” because the union was nonetheless paying the value for its determination to face down.
“The employees have held us accountable for such a choice as much as in the present day as a result of they have been sad. They imagine that as a result of we known as off that motion, that’s the reason the AIA is behaving the way in which it’s,” Boucher stated.
He stated that a couple of years in the past, the union determined to name off the deliberate industrial motion after a dialog with Ken Younger, the then chair of the airport’s board of administrators.
“We by no means obtained something from calling off that motion. We have been informed that ‘we might discover a answer.’ There was none. So, we known as off the motion and obtained nothing in return—completely nothing. That made the employees so offended: their state of affairs remained the identical.”
He stated that the non-payment of the increments was simply one of many “fairly vexing” points affecting the airport.
Nonetheless, “the entire employees,” together with junior and senior aviation safety officers, supervisors, plumbers, and electricians, are affected by the wage matter. Boucher stated he’s assured concerning the success of deliberate industrial motion on Monday and Wednesday.
“The assure is the employees’ phrase. And so they have been very sad with our failure to take motion a couple of years again as a result of, as they’ve stated, they proceed guilty us.”
He stated the union had briefed the employees on the “traditional” union-busting techniques.
“What usually occurs in these circumstances is a name to social gathering politics. So, you’ll hear that union management is political, one thing of that nature. ‘So don’t hassle with them as a result of they solely do that due to partisan politics. Possibly they’re on the opposite aspect and wish to make the federal government look dangerous.’
“And we now have made it clear to the employees that such an try will probably be made. However this matter just isn’t political within the sense of partisan politics,” Boucher stated.
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