00:00Following the intervention of Finance Minister Colm Imbert, who agreed to a 4% wage increase
00:05for the period 2015-2020 for Caribbean Airlines pilots on October 30, 2024, all seem to be
00:13going well.
00:14That's at least from the perspective of the TNT Airline Pilots Association, which
00:18says at a time of the announcement by Imbert, the wage issue was the only outstanding matter
00:24to be addressed amid a memorandum of items, which had been signed since July 11, 2024.
00:32With wages now in the bag, a memorandum of agreement signing ceremony was planned for
00:36December 6.
00:38According to TALPOP, the new agreement factored in residual articles, where a position was
00:43taken to have them remain the same as under the previous agreement of 2011, which is currently
00:49operational.
00:51Industrial Relations Consultant Timothy Bailey says at a meeting in November, Cal's negotiating
00:57team raised the issue of articles to be negotiated, and TALPOP highlighted that an agreement had
01:03already been reached on that.
01:05He claims that the head of Cal's negotiating team agreed with TALPOP's position.
01:11A meeting on November 27 was held at TALPOP's request to discuss omissions it noticed in
01:16the draft agreements.
01:18We were told that it was omitted in error.
01:23We were told that the company was committed to negotiating in good faith.
01:27But TALPOP now accuses Cal of the opposite, as on December 3, the progress between both
01:33parties came to a screeching halt, following a letter informing the association that a
01:37new position had been taken by the airline's board on two articles.
01:43That was supposed to be residual articles belonging to the collective agreement should
01:49be removed for the collective agreement to be signed off.
01:53A meeting called for December 6 did not occur, but prior to the news conference on December
01:589, the association met with Cal's Chief Executive Officer Gavin Madeira.
02:03TALPOP states that one of the articles now in contention is Article 23 from 2011.
02:10Lo and behold, we are being told in a nutshell that the company does not understand clearly
02:22the terms of the article.
02:24The association indicates that Cal pilots in Jamaica in 2011 were being paid 75 percent
02:31of their salaries in U.S. dollars, and when converted, they were earning more than local
02:36pilots who were paid in TD dollars, hence Article 23.
02:41It puts a mechanism in place to ensure that across bases, both pilots are paid equitably.
02:51They are now trying to remove the article that would have brought about that parity
02:58across bases.
03:00And they will try to sell to you all that the pilots are after being paid in U.S., and
03:05the pilots have never been paid in U.S.
03:08TALPOP says that this article must remain as it accuses Cal of giving more priority
03:13to its new Juve ban and Rumpunch launched days ago.
03:18The pilots are not that priority.
03:22Maybe Rumpunch will fly planes, or maybe the Juve ban, they might find people in the Juve
03:28ban to fly planes.
03:30TALPOP calls on Cal's board to allow good sense to prevail and stick to the agreement,
03:35which the association states went to the minister of finance for approval.
03:40We will not be held hostage by any board.
03:47We will not allow the negotiations to be hijacked.
03:52TALPOP states that if nothing changes, it will once again have to seek the intervention
03:57of the finance minister.
03:59Alicia Boucher, TV6 News.
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