The St. Vincent Public Service Union (PSU) is warning that operations at the Argyle International Airport (AIA) may come to a halt next month if the management does not respond to workers’ grievances, some of which were raised two years ago.
PSU president, Elroy Boucher, told a news conference that the workers were ready to withdraw their service from last week, but the union had asked them to shelve industrial action pending the outcome of talks with the new chairman of the board of directors of the state-owned company
“Now, I’m putting this out to the media and the public because on the 29th of this month, we should commence negotiations on a collective agreement. But if these issues are not addressed, there will be industrial action at the AIA,” Boucher said.
He said the PSU had been recognized as the workers’ bargaining agent since 2020, and on September 18, 2020, the union submitted a collective bargaining agreement for negotiation on behalf of workers.
“Almost two years have passed since the AIA has not responded favorably to the call to negotiate,” Boucher said, also adding that since 2017, the PSU brought to the attention of AIA management a number of issues affecting workers and requested dialogue to address them.
“The PSU experienced resistance from the management of the AIA in having dialogue aimed at addressing the issues that are affecting workers. The management refused to meet with the union over a two-year period to have these issues addressed.”
Boucher told reporters that while waiting for negotiation of the collective agreements, the union discovered that the management of AIA was changing the terms and conditions of the workers’ employment without communicating with the union.
He said among the outstanding issues is sick leave, and currently, workers are granted 14 days of sick leave annually. He said while AIA says this is in keeping with the law, the law they are referring to applies to security guards.
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