ST JOHN’S, Antigua – The Leeward Islands Airline Pilots’ Association (LIALPA) has warned the management of LIAT and the traveling public of industrial action if the demand for the establishment of a pension fund is not met.
What LIALPA Chairman Captain Michael Blackburn actually said is that he is giving notice that the pilots will “offer fierce resistance” if the company fails to comply.
Blackburn, who was speaking on The Big Issues on Sunday, said his members want the account in which their monies is deposited shifted to a bank of their choice.
“Notice has been served of our intent to offer fierce resistance in particular with the matter having to do with the fund pension contribution. We have set up an account and we require them to place the money there for safe keeping,” Blackburn said.
“We are uncomfortable with the arrangement they have, which has cost us, over the years, a lot of losses,” Blackburn said.
He said the pilots are ill at ease since they know very little about the status of their monies, in terms of how much money is in the current account and if deposits are being made.
The pilots’ angst also comes, the LIALPA chairman said, from the fact LIAT has failed to adhere to deadlines set up by the Industrial Court and by arbitrators for the establishment of a pension fund for the pilots.
He said the pilots do not want their money combined with the general pension scheme for LIAT employees.
“If you’re going to hold onto somebody’s money against their will, and if they feel the money is unsafe, and I have a resolution by 100 per cent pilots, unanimous, then it’s going to be a very uncomfortable situation in my opinion,” Blackburn said.
“I don’t want my money placed in accounts associated with the LIAT pension scheme because I have five pilots who have left and have lost nearly half of their money under the vested rules unilaterally held by LIAT, so it’s up now to another court order again or another industrial strike,” Blackburn said.
Contacted last week about the ongoing pension fund dispute, LIAT’s Corporate Communications Manager Desmond Browne said the problem arose from the collapse of the CLICO Investment Group with which the airline had entered into a pension fund arrangement.
But Blackburn laid the blamed for that squarely at feet of the airline’s management and rejected it as an excuse, saying, “We didn’t want to put the money in CLICO. LIAT put it in CLICO, so whether they lose it, that’s their affair. I am not accepting any losses from CLICO. LIAT will deal with CLICO.”
Blackburn said the pilots did not give consent for the failed arrangement. In a previous press statement, he also said the investment was in contravention of a court order.
CLICO and all of its subsidiaries collapsed three years ago.
The pilots last took industrial action in June 2010. The strike lasted two days, left thousands of regional travellers stranded and cost the regional airline
The issue then included a push for the settlement of all retroactive holiday payments and an update of the status of the pension fund.
