CAL pilots pause peaceful pickets at Piarco

PILOTS employed with Caribbean Airlines Ltd (CAL) did not take picket action on October 4, but maintained their call for the completion of negotiations that have been ongoing for nine years.

On October 3, more than 30 pilots represented by the TT Airline Pilots Association (TTALPA) marched through  Piarco Airport with placards in hand, complaining that they had been working on contracts that have expired for almost a decade.

But CAL’s management expressed disappointment in the picket action, claiming pilots had been receiving annual increments of up to three per cent.

In a conversation with TTALPA’s industrial relations consultant Timothy Bailey, Newsday was told the incremental payments had nothing to do with the bargaining agreement.

“The public service and the airline industry have something called increments. In CAL, all the employees have an increment, which is a performance-based arrangement, (under) which the maximum amount a person can get is three per cent. It is based on your job, your years of service and your overall presence on the job.

“This has nothing to do with the collective agreement on salary.”

He said CAL made that statement to distract from the fact that the pilots have not received word from the company on an offer of a four per cent salary increase, for which they have been waiting for nine years.

He said pilots took into consideration that CAL is currently going through an expansion exercise, where new airliners are coming in and better machinery is being bought.

"But there is a human part to this thing.

"The machines cannot operate for themselves, we haven’t reached that stage yet. People fly the planes; people serve people on the planes. If you are going through expansion, you have to take into consideration the human element."

Bailey commended the pilots on their actions, describing it as reasonable.

"The four per cent offer is very reasonable. The pilots' behaviour was very reasonable as well. They did not shut down the airline yesterday. They sent out their message and they made sure that the operators were not disrupted."

The bargaining agreement, in terms of wording and benefits, is all but settled, according to Bailey.

"It seems that they have no instructions on the four per cent. They have been given a final position of four per cent, consistent with the CPO’s offer to public servants. We did that since July. We are now in October and they have not yet responded."

He said, in comparison, international-based pilots are receiving salary increases in the double digits.

A Reuters report on September 4 said Air Canada and the pilots union have agreed to a 26 per cent pay increase, followed by a four per cent raise in each of the next three years.

In the US, United Airlines pilots agreed to a 40 per cent increase and a 34 per cent increase  was agreed to in negotiations between Delta pilots and the company.