PM Browne Urges LIAT Workers to Accept Reduced Compensation as LIAT 1974 Nears Liquidation

1. Well I’m telling you, the Union will tell them to stand their ground. And in the end LIAT 1974 will fold up and the liquidator will after years present his report to the court and then reality will kick in and there will be no money left to pay any severance pay. You guys and girls have one last chance, fire the union and take things in your own hands. negotiate the best deal you can get.

2. @From The Sideline

   You have claimed in the past to have either expertise or experince in this are of corporate reorganization.

   What you have written is political hogwash, unless this was a bogus bankruptcy filing. Meaning, its a clear and willful departure from the norm. Wages saleries commissions and pensions as well as other compensation from bargaining agreements are first on line after taxes in a bankruptcy filing.

   Universal bankrupcy laws give saleries and taxes a high priority. Banks normally stand behind wages and taxes.

   Banks and other ceditors take pennies on the dollar; if and when the time comes for them to get a fraction of what they are owed.

   In no other world would the Court, the Reciever or Gaston be able to trafers any assets of LIAT 1974 before all creditors or the creditors committee agree to such a thing.

   Maybe a bogus BANKRUPTCY ACT was written and passed. If thats the case; you may be correct.

3. This is such an anti worker, anti union stand and flies in the face of what workers are entitled to when a company folds. LIAT might be a shadow of what it was in its formative days but the company still exists and and it’s former workers are still entitled to their severance as spelled out in tge Antigua and Barbuda Labour Code. The mechanics of how this is to be done really rests with the share holder governments- Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, St. Vincent & the Grenadines and Dominica. LIAT still owns substantial assets which includes at least 3 airplanes and other ground equipment and under regular circumstances, those planes and equipment could be siezed and sold in order to meet the severance payments that is owed to former workers. It is my understanding that it is the intention of Antigua and Barbuda to purchase the shares of the other shareholder governments which would them form the majority of Antigua & Barbuda shareholding in the new company headed by AIR PEACE. No planes, no equipment should be allowed to be transfered to anyone until and unless the issue of the workers compensation package is settled. The issue of “take this or nothing” is anti worker and is disgraceful and wrong and should be contested. Workers have rights and their fundermental rights should be protected at all costs. Today it is LIAT…..tomorrow we might witness some other company, local or regional trying the same stunt.

4. @ Audley Phillip
   Among the many things here that are so unfortunate is that Gaston Browne has overstepped bounds which is not uncommon.
   The churches, the labor unions and other organizations have left the workers out to dry.
   It’s ironic that the political party has the word Labour in its name. It speaks to have upside down this country has become.

5. Gaston Browne EPITOMIZES the real reason why corporate greed is destroying democracies like Antigua 🇦🇬.

   Corporations are sacrificing the poor man for their own financial gains. I have never experienced a time like this where workers rights are blatantly being eroded at such an alarming rate.

   They are making sure that the “9 to 5” workforce will never be the same again!

   One of the real reasons that they only “promote” the hospitality sector, because they still need people to SERVE them good, good … good!

   As a self-made man, I’m so glad that I don’t RELY on politicians or compromise myself to the greed and avarice of any corporations.

   EDUCATION AND AN – OVERRIDING – INDEPENDENT MINDSET HAS BEEN MY MANTRA …

6. The regional unions need to go after the 4 shareholding governments to recover 100% severance for all the workers .Note the major shareholder BARBADOS settle 100% severance with the 89 employees based in BARBADOS.The 4 shareholding governments need to show mercy for all the workers in the same way.It’s only fair.

   • @ Done lemon, the Barbados 🇧🇧 Goverment recognise that THEIR workforce is an asset and not a HINDRANCE as Gaston Browne sees Antiguans.

     He asset strips our lands, the finances and only turns to us when he needs our votes ❎ and EVER increasing taxes.

     According to Gaston Browne’s own empty-headed mindset, LIAT really means:

     Lackadaisical
     Itinerant
     Airline
     Toilers

7. I will say the government should settle with the Antiguan former employees and let the other shareholder governments deal with their own like Barbados. I don’t know what assets Liat has, but I do know the planes were leased. So the bank owns them.

8. Why do I have to deal with so many inept UPP cronies?
   What Is a Preferred Creditor?
   A preferred creditor, also known as a “preferential creditor”, is an individual or organization that has priority in being paid the money it is owed if the debtor declares bankruptcy.

   The CDB is a “Preferential Creditor.” They have a lien on the planes. And the planes are the biggest Assets from LIAT 1974.

   is that so hard to get in to you all brains. I really didn’t want to comments but it bothers me when so many stupid comments are left unchallenged. And the innocent readers that do not know better will swallow your garbage hook line and sinker.

   And another thing. LIAT 1974 is not yet in Liquidation. It is in Administration. It was placed their by the government of Antigua and Barbuda to see if it could be saved and reorganized. However the workers did not want to take a haircut and no investor will invest in a company that is so heavily indebted. Barbados and St. Vincent had already throw in the towel.
   Now LIAT 2020 will be introduced as a completely new airline with no strings attached to the old LIAT. And as the prime minister said, take the offer while it is still on the table. Barbados said they will only take care of the Barbadian workers. Even though they are the largest shareholder and should carry the brunt of the severance debt. But Mia does what is good for Barbados alone. And sadly enough, you will not hear a drum from any union. They only castigate the prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda. And why? When he wants to include ALL LIAT 1974 employees. So he is committing to 32% of the total severance pay. And Barbados is committing to approximately 90 ex employees. And not more than BDS$75000.00 per worker.
   Only hate for the man Gaston Browne makes the union push such an agenda. They will bring this to the Labour Court and will lose. The shareholders only have a moral obligation. And that only to the ratio of their shareholding.

   Let me give another example of how things go in real life. According to law the staff have first claim to the estate after taxes. Well the receivers from Stanford didn’t think so. They sold properties and even transferred some to creditors for settlement. The biggest that struck me was the transfer of the airport properties, being the lands and the hangar to Makeda Mikael. And the reason they gave the court was that they didn’t want to go through a lengthy court case that she had against the Stanford Group.
   And to this day not all former workers got severed. Because the receivers claimed that the company some of the workers worked for had no real assets. Some of these companies are, Sticky Wicket, Antigua Sun, Antigua Printing and Publishing and the Stanford Financial Group. The last company is where all the security personnel were employed at. So these workers didn’t get a red cent until this day.
   LIAT 1974 employees will meet the same fate.
   The company has no ASSETS

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