ABWU sends Second Letter to LIAT Administrator

The Antigua and Barbuda Workers Union has written a second letter to the LIAT’s court-appointed administrator Cleveland Seaforth, making it clear that the issue of dialogue between the two entities should be treated with greater importance. 

The letter signed by union boss David Massiah and received by this media house is giving Seaforth until tomorrow (Thurs) to meet with the union, after a first request for an audience failed. 

In his letter, Massiah tells Seaforth that QUOTE “meaningful dialogue with your good self and whomever you chose to be with you is still pertinent.” 

The ABWU has been trying without success to meet with Seaforth following the announcement by LIAT’s shareholder governments that LIAT 1974 will be liquidated.

Instead of meeting with the Union Seaford penned a letter, saying that he had not been fully informed about the liquidation talks. 

But Massiah charged in his latest communique that while Seaforth claims he is not privy to information already in the public domain, LIAT 1974 is still under a court-appointed administrator and lack of information should not be an excuse to evade consultation with the union. 

Massiah maintains that regular consultation and dialogue with employees and their representatives is essential, especially in light of all the outstanding issues that are relevant to LIAT’s future. 

Furthermore, he said it is imperative that unions are kept fully abreast with updates as far as the operations are concerned. 

LIAT has been operating a reduced schedule with a limited workforce since November 2020, and the former workers have been clamouring for their severance payments ever since the pandemic put the brakes on travel in March of that year. 

The administration process, which initially commenced in July 2020 after the Covid-19 pandemic saw the airline take a nosedive, was expected to last for four months.

It has now been ongoing for more than two years. Former workers are owed over 80 million EC dollars in severance and other allowances.

Just this week Prime Minister Gaston Browned accused Massiah and the ABWU of playing politics with the LIAT matter.

The union fired back accusing Browne of being the only prime minister among the shareholder governments who appears to be unsympathetic toward former staff’s plight.