VZCZCXRO5602
PP RUEHGR
DE RUEHWN #0392 0611723
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 021723Z MAR 06
FM AMEMBASSY BRIDGETOWN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 2023
RUEPVAP/TSA WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEAYVF/FAA MIAMI ARTCC MIAMI FL PRIORITY
RUEANHA/FAA NATIONAL HQ WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
INFO RUCNCOM/EC CARICOM COLLECTIVE PRIORITY

UNCLAS BRIDGETOWN 000392 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
FAA MIAMI FOR MAYTE ASHBY 
TSA MIAMI FOR ALLAN HURR AND LORETTA MCNEIR 
 
SIPDIS 
DEPT FOR EB/TRA AND WHA/CAR 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAIR ELAB PREL PGOV KPAO XL
SUBJECT: LIAT PILOTS' SURPRISE SICKOUT LEAVES HUNDREDS 
STRANDED 
 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Summary:  Without advance warning, Leeward Islands 
Air Transit (LIAT) cockpit crews staged a sickout beginning 
4:00 a.m. March 1.  This industrial action left hundreds of 
passengers stranded, including the Principal Officer in 
Grenada and an Embassy-sponsored jazz group.  LIAT is vital 
to the transportation system in the region as one of only two 
carriers (the other is Caribbean Star) making "island 
hopping" flights.  In the typical "strike first, negotiate 
later" pattern of labor relations in the Eastern Caribbean, 
the pilots gave no advance warning of the sickout and 
released no statement of demands.  This strategy, while 
disruptive to the public, preserves a workable relationship 
between labor and management by keeping their grievances out 
of the press.  Oliver Haywood, LIAT sales and services 
manager for Barbados, told Labor Officer the morning of March 
2 that the sickout is now over and LIAT has resumed its 
normal schedule.  End Summary. 
 
------------------- 
Unannounced Sickout 
------------------- 
 
¶2.  (U) LIAT cockpit crews staged a sickout beginning 4:00 
a.m. March 1.  Post first heard of the strike from the PAO, 
who was stuck at the Barbados airport from 4:00 a.m. until 
late in the afternoon March 1 trying to get the Alejandro 
Aviles Quartet jazz group to Grenada.  The evening news in 
Barbados showed scenes of disgruntled passengers milling 
around the Grantley Adams International Airport and frantic 
LIAT managers trying to place passengers on rival Caribbean 
Star, which flies essentially the same routes as LIAT (from 
Trinidad and Guyana in the south up to Puerto Rico and the 
Dominican Republic in the north).  Outgoing Grenada Principal 
Officer Peter Secor, scheduled for outbriefs at Embassy 
Bridgetown March 2, was also stranded by the sickout. 
 
¶3.  (U)  The strike only lasted one day, and LIAT has since 
resumed service.  Oliver Haywood, LIAT Sales and Services 
Manager for Barbados, told Labor Officer the morning of March 
2, "Everything is back to normal, operations at one hundred 
percent."  The LIAT Pilots Association did not release any 
statement about their actions.  Apparently, the pilots are in 
contract negotiations with LIAT, and they likely staged this 
sickout to help their negotiating position.  (Note: 
Antigua-based LIAT has faced severe financial difficulties 
over the past several years due to structural inefficiencies 
and competition from Texan billionaire Allen Stanford's 
airlines, Caribbean Star and Caribbean Sun.  LIAT manages to 
stay afloat only through cash infusions from its government 
shareholders:  Trinidad, Barbados, Antigua, and St. Vincent. 
Barbados has recently offered LIAT a US$10 million injection, 
conditioned upon LIAT's moving its base from Antigua to 
Barbados.  End Note.) 
 
----------------------------- 
Strike First, Negotiate Later 
----------------------------- 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Comment:  In the reverse order of American labor 
relations where labor negotiates first and strikes only if 
they cannot reach an agreement, industrial actions in the 
Eastern Caribbean tend to be "strike first, negotiate later." 
 The strikes, however, generally last only for a day, or even 
for just a few hours, before labor and management are at the 
table resolving the labor issue through negotiations. 
Typically in the Eastern Caribbean, to maintain workable 
labor management relations, labor will not announce its 
demands publicly and neither side crows victory upon conflict 
resolution.  For the vital transport sector, however, "strike 
first, negotiate later" leaves travelers without time to make 
alternate arrangements and causes great short-term 
disruption.  End Comment. 
KRAMER