The man who has been spearheading the fight on behalf of former LIAT employees owed millions of dollars in pay, has criticised the actions of Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne.
Former senior LIAT pilot Barbadian Neil Cave on Wednesday supported the latest move by president of the Leeward Islands Airline Pilots Association (LIALPA) Patterson Thompson to draw attention again to the suffering of the dismissed flyers, but rubbished Thompson’s apparent backing for Browne’s “compassionate” offer to the workers.
Cave, who was asked to respond to comments made by Thompson during an interview on Antigua’s Observer Radio on Tuesday regarding the ongoing stalemate between pilots and the Antigua-based airline, said while he fully endorsed the LIALPA leader’s description of the former employees being cut down at the knees and ankles, his tacit support for Browne’s “offer” gets a failing grade.
“So Patterson Thompson is truly right to be disgusted after 19 long months with the present situation. Where Patterson and I part ways is on this whole issue of Prime Minister Gaston Browne and his purported compassionate offer,” the ex-LIAT pilot captain told Barbados TODAY.
“It is anything but compassionate and people need to understand that. It is free to talk and let me not sugar-coat this, so far, Prime Minister Browne has not given – and I can certainly attest to this – he has not given the workers so much as a bottle of water,” Cave contended.
The terminated LIAT employee suggested that if that is not cruel, then he did not know what is.
He argued that at least the Barbados Government has demonstrated mercy by providing a temporary loan of $2,000 per month for not only the Barbadian LIAT workers here, but all other regional nationalities based in Bridgetown.
Cave said this money would at least allow them to have basic food supplies, electricity and pay part of a rent bill.
“So Prime Minister Browne has been spitting this rhetoric about a 50 per cent compassionate offer, this that and the next, when in fact no such thing exists. He has been talking about that since late 2020. So why is it that up to now, the unions cannot get this in writing?” he asked.
“I have seen notes from the various meetings and what Prime Minister Browne is putting on the table in some cases is less than 10 or 15 per cent of what some people are actually owed in terms of cash,” the Barbadian pilot stated.
Cave also contended that his “land and bonds talk” lacked specificity.
“At the end of the day while all this talk is going on since the end of 2020 consistently, yet conveniently there is nothing on the table. So more needs to be done, the workers in LIAT deserve their due. They are not begging, they are just asking for what they are due,” he declared.
The Barbadian commercial airline pilot said he prays the former staff do not have to endure another Christmas like they did last year without the monies that are rightfully owed to them, “and continue to have to face the kind of suffering that I have seen first-hand”, he added.
During the radio interview, Thompson called on the LIAT shareholder governments of Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Dominica to assist in reaching a settlement regarding the outstanding severance owned to the pilots.
He said Barbados, Dominica and St Vincent and the Grenadines should join in the efforts being undertaken by Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister to deal with the situation.
Thompson declared: “If you don’t want to join together with Mr Browne’s efforts, what can you do for us down there, you and Prime Minister (Dr Ralph) Gonsalves (St Vincent and the Grenadines)? And that’s the issue.”
“We talking about…slavery – we going back 400 years, but this happened in 2020. Charity begins at home, let us come together as a Caribbean group and deal with the problem,” he said.
“If you tell me I could pay the money over two or three years, I could probably live with that, but just cut us off at the knees, ankles. We served the country, all of us, not only Bajans, not only Antiguans. There were Grenadians, Vincentians, St Lucians, Kittitians, Trinis, Guyanese.”
Last month Prime Minister Browne appealed to regional trade unions to rethink their positions made to the former airline employees.
He said what is required is the unions’ cooperation, noting that some union leaders are making “unreasonable demands” for which they have no legal basis.
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Gaston Browne out there boasting that his teenage wife is a millionaire yet has no compassion for starving LIAT employees who face a second bleak Christmas with not a single cent of their monies that are legally owned to them!!! Shameless dictator!!
You jealous??? You want him to marry an owl fowl like ________? 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Seems this pilot has not heard GB Browne state the offer is ready now, Moneys are available now, they can accept his offer and continiue to try to get whatever rest from the other governments. Must also state as a tax payer here who will have to foot a bill (50 percent of the debt)that we are not legally obligated to, he is ungrateful
Tenman the man is correct, after all this time and talk of bonds and land the people have nothing in writing. I certainly wouldn’t take anything Gaston say and run with it unless it is in black and white.
Tenman? Ruler the ofer was made in writing. There is an artcle on ANR where the overeseas unions rejected the offer. They then stated they had some further questions, hence had not rejected it. Heard their questions were demands for more monie.
Yes Tenman the whole of Antigua know who you are by now, so cut it out. Anyway if the offer was made in writing why are all the unions keep saying they waiting on specifics?
Tell Stone you are begging for charity. You are asking what is legally due to you as prescribed by law in the Labor Code. It is SHAMEFUL that you as a worker of a company cannot get the severance due to you!
When the State of Emergency is lifted. You all need to March up the Corrupt Cabinet of Deplorables offices at the top of Queen Elizabeth Highway(Road to me) and demand your money.
Correction. You are not begging for charity.
Wasn’t that guy in Boyz 2 Men ?
The pilots have now changed their tune. They now understand that Antigua does not have a legal obligation to pay more than 35% of the liability if it ever comes to that. However, they claim that there is a moral obligation for the shareholder government to pay the staff their entire 100% severance. Sympathetically speaking I can agree with that standpoint. Liat was not only owned by the shareholder governments, but they also appointed the board, who in turn appointed the management team. Having therefore direct influence on the operation of LIAT they should have 100% responsibility of the debt of LIAT. I believe a good lawyer should be able to make the case in court or the LIAT board members should be held accountable. As they had Fiduciary responsibility of the company. And as I said those board members are sometimes government ministers. But again, a fight like that in court can take many years to play out. All the way to the Privy Council or the CCJ. Can and will these former employees have the stamina to wait that long. Again, Stanford receivers took nine years to pay part of the former employees their severance. Half Moon Bay former employees are still waiting. Many have died in the meantime. My advice is, take what you can get now. Make the best possible deal that you can get. Let LIAT be viable again. And if it, does you can than get the balance of your pay. In other words, you agree on a payment now, with the understanding that in the next ten years you come and sit again around the table and see if LIAT is liquid enough to pay its old debt. And make sure you have clauses in there that your interest can be willed to your next of kin.
It’s the dog’s fault. The pilots would have had their money if he had only done what Ralph and Mia said and sell the damn planes. His macho self wanted LIAT to be his private airline. Now everybody and everything is suffering, including the airline. He has lost interest in this project and has moved on, so to hell with them.
If the plane were sold the proceeds would have gone to the CDB. They have a lien not only on the planes, but the governments also had to give a guarantee for the repayment of the loan. The staff would not get a red cent.
The planes do not belong to LIAT, those that were not on a lease were tied to a CDB loan. In essence no moneys from the sale of the planes would go to the employees
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