Last Saturday night, at the 30th World Travel Awards gala ceremony held at the Sandals Grand Saint Lucian, Caribbean Airlines Limited (CAL) was voted the region’s Leading Airline Brand, while Bahamasair took the prize for the Leading Caribbean Airline. Ironically, this accolade comes just one week after the CAL organisation suffered immense damage, to both its financial and reputation standings, following a sickout by its pilots from the 19th to 21st August.
The industrial action resulted in the airline having to cancel over 60 domestic, regional and international flights which stranded thousands of passengers. The pilots had been calling in sick en masse three hours before they were scheduled to take command of their aircraft, forcing CAL to cancel flights and issue press releases stating that “cockpit crew restraints” was the source of the issue. The sickout followed a breakdown in the collective bargaining negotiations between the Trinidad and Tobago Airline Pilots Association (TTALPA) and CAL, with regard to salary increases for pilots, which has been dragging on for a few years.
CAL was forced to seek an ex-parte injunction under the Industrial Relations Act (IRA) from the Industrial Court ordering the pilots to return to work immediately. The court, in an emergency session, granted the injunction at 1:30 am on Monday 21st August, stating in part in the ruling that the TTALPA and its CAL members “are hereby enjoined from taking and/or continuing to take and/or participating however in such industrial action within the meaning of the Act including calling in sick en masse.”
In a statement issued the previous day TTALPA stated that it was “unaware of any strike action being taken by the pilot body” since it was prohibited from doing so as it was an essential service. It duly acknowledged that Section 67 (2) of the IRA states: “An employer or a worker carrying on or engaged in an essential service shall not take industrial action in connection with any such essential service.” TTALPA’s denial hinged on the awareness that CAL could terminate all the pilots who took part in the industrial action “as a fundamental breach of contract going to the root of the contract of employment of the worker,” as per section 63 1 (c) of the IRA.
As the dust begins to settle and the airline operations return to normal, the inevitable verbal sparring continued. Speaking at a public ceremony, hours after the court ruling, Senior Govern-ment Minister Stuart Young observed that the “complete shutdown of our national airline” had been undertaken by “a literal handful of individuals.” The Energy and Energy Industries Minister duly noted, “You must understand …. when you trace it back it is all about entitlement.”
A very long statement, under the title, “The cry for safety” and directed to CAL’s CEO and VP of Human Resources, purportedly signed by ‘the hardworking employees of CAL’ was widely circulated on social media in the past week. It launched a scathing attack on CAL’s management, accusing it of lack of transparency and poor decision making. It is interesting to note that none of the CAL employees – if indeed they did write it – possessed the fortitude to affix their signature/s to the bold accusations.
The opposition, naturally, joined the fray, seizing on the opportunity to stir the pot while accusing the PNM government of bullyism. At a press conference at its Port-of-Spain office last Sunday, UNC Senator David Nakhid advised, “These CAL pilots and other sectors, who our government continues to oppress; our teachers, our nurses, our fire officers, our policemen, they need to come out and say to [Prime Minister] Rowley enough is enough.”
Last Monday, the Joint Trade Union Movement (JTUM), in voicing its support for the TTALPA seeking to settle negotiations with CAL, expressed concern over the delay noting that the union had sought the Minister of Labour’s intervention for the 2015 – 2018 bargaining period since 2021, and as recently as the 13th July.
A report published in last Sunday’s Trinidad Guardian newspaper painted a very bleak picture of CAL’s financial outlook. The airline, already saddled with TT$1 billion in debt, was projecting losses of another estimated TT$15 million for last week’s sick-out action. The article outlined CAL’s debt-free beginnings with a start up outlay of US$139.2 million by the PNM government in 2006 – 2007. (There was no mention of the folding of its predecessor, BWIA, at the end of December 2006, after years of massive losses, despite the pumping of billions of taxpayers’ dollars into the entity, most notably under Eric Williams’ PNM governments). It traced the numerous years of losses, the few profitable ones, and highlights the poor decision to purchase nine ATR aircraft for US$200 million – which was not necessary at the time – with its cash resources. This decision, from which it never recovered, coupled with the numerous chopping and changing in the composition of its board, and the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic created a financial minefield for the airline’s operations. The last time CAL, which is majority-owned (88.1 percent) by the T&T Govern-ment, presented annual financial statements to the public was in 2015, for its 2014 performance, when it recorded a US$60 million loss. Now to this quagmire is added last weekend’s industrial action.
The CAL pilots, the public face of the airline, should bear in mind the long-term effects of their actions causing the estimated TT$15 million loss and the unquantifiable damage to the airline’s reputation. They should also note that the demise of LIAT 1974 was partly due to several instances of disruptive industrial action for salary increases as the airline was suffering million-dollar losses. In addition, there was the long-term effect on the work environment spurred by the 1978 BWIA pilots’ strike which grounded the entity for eight months. The disruption, which was caused by the dismissal of one pilot, led to the termination of all pilots when they ignored a call to return to work. When the work stoppage was finally settled and the pilots re-employed, the aftermath lingered for decades between those who had opted to strike and those who chose not to. One senior T&T government official, no doubt peeved by the pilots’ action despite the government’s agreement to a US$65 million bond surety to guarantee salaries during the pandemic, allegedly described CAL, an icon of national pride, as a luxury and not a necessity. How much money can any government pour into one perpetually loss-making enterprise?
Here in Guyana, we should pay close attention to the lessons being presented here. Firstly, the thought of reviving the now defunct national airline should be closely examined before we rush in to that business again. The list of professionally run international airlines which consistently turn a profit is extremely short. It is an industry which requires the management expertise of suitably qualified and experienced personnel, and not the appointments of inappropriate party loyalists, as is the tendency here.
It has been less than two decades since BeeWee, as everyone referred to BWIA back in the day, was grounded. CAL, unfortunately, appears to be following its flight path.
