KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent (CMC) – The prime ministers of Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda and St. Vincent & the Grenadines yesterday wrapped up a “very successful” meeting with disgruntled pilots of the regional airline LIAT agreeing to send their protracted industrial dispute to arbitration for settlement by 30 Sept.

“I think we are seeing the commencement of a fresh start, a partnership between LIAT’s management and all the stakeholders including the pilots association,” St. Vincent & the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves told reporters after a meeting with officials from 10 trade unions that represents the employees of the cash-strapped airline.

The chairman of the Leeward Islands Airline Pilots Association (LIAPA), Captain Michael Blackburn, described the talks as positive, adding “there have been grounds broken and hoping to build on in good faith.

“I have in the past advocated arbitration, it is now a reality…and we are hoping that we could move into the arbitration process expeditiously so that LIAT can move forward,” he said.

Chairman of the LIAT Board of Directors Jean Holder described the meeting as “historic”, adding that without the airline, “there is really no single market and economy” in the region.

“Therefore the presence and serving the immediate future of this region socially and commercially…depends on the competition with these people around the table have made during the last few weeks and certainly today.”

The meeting was also attended by Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer of Antigua and Barbuda and his Barbados counterpart, David Thompson and Gonsalves said there was agreement that the company and LIALPA would submit all the employment issues relating to the pilots to binding arbitration.

“On Wednesday morning in Barbados, these issues would be detailed in particular,” he said, noting that, “we are not staying with a fresh slate because there had been some negotiations before.”

Gonsalves said the retired Barbadian jurist Leroy Inniss, QC would chair the arbitration panel with management and the pilots each appointing a representative.

He said the panel would devise its own programme within the framework of the laws of Antigua and Barbuda, where the airline is headquartered and there would be a final report by the panel “on or before 30 Sept.”

Gonsalves noted that while the panel is adjudicating on the matter, the two sides have agreed to revert to the situation that existed before the airline was granted an injunction by the Industrial Court in Antigua that prevented the pilots from taking any industrial action.

He said the new environment would also bring to an end “whatever form of industrial action the pilots would have taken,” adding, “I am not saying that the pilots took industrial action, but whatever form they may have taken, those will no longer in existence.”