Pilots' union uses billboard to demand 4% salary increase

The TT Airline Pilots Association (TTALPA) says four months after the Finance Minister authorised a four per cent wage increase for pilots employed with Caribbean Airlines (CAL), the company has failed to honour this increase.

The association is now urging pilots to refuse to work on their days off until the increase is implemented.

In a message to its members on February 20, TTALPA said last October Finance Minister Colm Imbert intervened in the public dispute over wages for the period 2015-2020.

"The minister publicly authorised CAL to settle the September 2015-August 2020 period with TTALPA with a four per cent salary increase and to offer the pilots a further four per cent salary increase for the 2020-2023 period. To date CAL has failed to honour this authorisation."

TTALPA said it was once again being "forced" to bring public awareness to CAL's refusal to maintain good-faith negotiations with its pilots.

"Step one is a billboard located on the western side of BWIA Boulevard, just south of the gas station.

"As we courageously engage the powers at be, we reach out to each out to the entire membership for your full support of our efforts, to conclude a fair and equitable contract for us all. No bidding verbal or written and/or flying on off days until CAL starts keeping its word to the pilots."

A day before Imbert's intervention last October, pilots picketed the Eric Williams Financial Complex on Independence Square in Port of Spain. Several weeks earlier, they staged a silent  march with placards at the Piarco International Airport. They complained they were the second-worst paid pilots in the region, after the Bahamas.

In response, Imbert said the government could not afford to pay the four per cent the union was asking for. He also incorrectly said CAL pilots were among the highest-earning professionals in the region and that they receive $42,714 amonth in allowances on top of their salaries.
Later that day, he admitted his error sand apologised, saying the information had come from CAL.

He also gave in to the pilots' demand for a four per cent increase.

"However, having given this dispute careful consideration, in the interest of good industrial relations, the Minister of Finance has today authorised CAL to settle the September 2015-August 2020 period with TTALPA (TT Airline Pilots Association) with a four per cent increase in salaries and to offer the pilots a further four per cent increase in salaries for the next bargaining period, that is to say, the September 2020 -August 2023 period," a statement from the ministry said.

In August 2023, 37 international, regional and domestic flights were cancelled after pilots called in sick over a two-day period. Thousands of passengers were left stranded and the cancelled flights cost $15 million.

A day later, the Industrial Court granted CAL an injunction ordering the pilots to return to work.