LIAT PILOTS' SURPRISE SICKOUT LEAVES HUNDREDS

UNCLAS BRIDGETOWN 000392 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS FAA MIAMI FOR MAYTE ASHBY TSA MIAMI FOR ALLAN HURR AND LORETTA MCNEIR SIPDIS DEPT FOR EB/TRA AND WHA/CAR E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: EAIR ELAB PREL PGOV KPAO XL SUBJECT: LIAT PILOTS' SURPRISE SICKOUT LEAVES HUNDREDS STRANDED ¶1. (SBU) Summary: Without advance warning, Leeward Islands Air Transit (LIAT) cockpit crews staged a sickout beginning 4:00 a.m. March 1. This industrial action left hundreds of passengers stranded, including the Principal Officer in Grenada and an Embassy-sponsored jazz group. LIAT is vital to the transportation system in the region as one of only two carriers (the other is Caribbean Star) making "island hopping" flights. In the typical "strike first, negotiate later" pattern of labor relations in the Eastern Caribbean, the pilots gave no advance warning of the sickout and released no statement of demands. This strategy, while disruptive to the public, preserves a workable relationship between labor and management by keeping their grievances out of the press. Oliver Haywood, LIAT sales and services manager for Barbados, told Labor Officer the morning of March 2 that the sickout is now over and LIAT has resumed its normal schedule. End Summary. -------------- Unannounced Sickout -------------- ¶2. (U) LIAT cockpit crews staged a sickout beginning 4:00 a.m. March 1. Post first heard of the strike from the PAO, who was stuck at the Barbados airport from 4:00 a.m. until late in the afternoon March 1 trying to get the Alejandro Aviles Quartet jazz group to Grenada. The evening news in Barbados showed scenes of disgruntled passengers milling around the Grantley Adams International Airport and frantic LIAT managers trying to place passengers on rival Caribbean Star, which flies essentially the same routes as LIAT (from Trinidad and Guyana in the south up to Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic in the north). Outgoing Grenada Principal Officer Peter Secor, scheduled for outbriefs at Embassy Bridgetown March 2, was also stranded by the sickout. ¶3. (U) The strike only lasted one day, and LIAT has since resumed service. Oliver Haywood, LIAT Sales and Services Manager for Barbados, told Labor Officer the morning of March 2, "Everything is back to normal, operations at one hundred percent." The LIAT Pilots Association did not release any statement about their actions. Apparently, the pilots are in contract negotiations with LIAT, and they likely staged this sickout to help their negotiating position. (Note: Antigua-based LIAT has faced severe financial difficulties over the past several years due to structural inefficiencies and competition from Texan billionaire Allen Stanford's airlines, Caribbean Star and Caribbean Sun. LIAT manages to stay afloat only through cash infusions from its government shareholders: Trinidad, Barbados, Antigua, and St. Vincent. Barbados has recently offered LIAT a US$10 million injection, conditioned upon LIAT's moving its base from Antigua to Barbados. End Note.) -------------- Strike First, Negotiate Later -------------- ¶4. (SBU) Comment: In the reverse order of American labor relations where labor negotiates first and strikes only if they cannot reach an agreement, industrial actions in the Eastern Caribbean tend to be "strike first, negotiate later." The strikes, however, generally last only for a day, or even for just a few hours, before labor and management are at the table resolving the labor issue through negotiations. Typically in the Eastern Caribbean, to maintain workable labor management relations, labor will not announce its demands publicly and neither side crows victory upon conflict resolution. For the vital transport sector, however, "strike first, negotiate later" leaves travelers without time to make alternate arrangements and causes great short-term disruption. End Comment. KRAMER