LIAT averts regional industrial action

LIAT has averted a region-wide industrial action by rescinding severance letters to workers at its City Ticketing Offices.

Talks between the airline’s management and the unions representing LIAT workers on the issue for the closures are set to resume, according to chairman of the Consultative Council of Trade Unions within the LIAT system Senator Chester Humphrey.

The withdrawal of letters had been a condition set by the unions to resume talks.

The workers’ bargaining agents had also warned that if LIAT did not rescind the correspondence and went ahead with the June 30 closures, there would be industrial action involving LIAT workers all across the region.

Antigua-based airline employees’ representatives have been in talks for more than a year and a half about closing the offices.

However, the unions threatened the industrial action because LIAT had issued the letters to workers before the talks reached a conclusion.

A total of 34 employees will be affected by the closure of the ticketing offices in Antigua, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia and St. Vincent.