WESTERN BUREAU:
SCORES OF Airports Authority of Jamaica workers at Sangster International Airport, Montego Bay, stopped working yesterday, demanding that their pensions be paid to them before the new operators take over the airport.
The placard-bearing workers marched from the airport to the main road, where they protested at the roundabout.
They warned that they could not guarantee normality at the airport for the rest of the week unless their unions - the Trades Union Congress and the Union of Technical,
Administrative and Supervisory Personnel - advised them that the matter was resolved.
"At a meeting Monday between the AAJ and the National Investment Bank (NIBJ), a decision was taken that our pension would be transferred in bulk to the private investors - Vancouver Consortium's pension scheme," said Dyon Gordon, union delegate Dyon Gordon. "We are saying no; that cannot be the case. We believe that democracy should prevail and allow us to determine whether or not we want it that way."
The contract for the divestment of the airport is to be signed today in Montego Bay by Prime Minister P.J. Patterson, other Government officials and representatives of the Vancouver Consortium, to which the airport is being divested.
Mr. Gordon said that some time ago they received a letter from the AAJ which gave them the option to sign over their pension to the new owners. He said, however , that on Monday they were informed that if they did not sign over their pension, they could consider that they had resigned and would not be entitled to any compensation.
"They say that is the law. They are forcing us to accept the transfer of our pensions," he said.
Millard Gayle, another union delegate, supported what his colleague said. "It cannot be transferred in a bulk form. It has to be done on an individual basis and persons would have to agree to that," he said.
Mr. Gayle said several departments were affected by yesterday's protest. These included the Airport Protection Service, maintenance, janitorial, customer service and security.
Denton Campbell, vice president of the AAJ, who has responsibilities for the western region, declined to speak with the media about the issue.
But Edmund Bartlett, JLP spokesman on tourism, said the opposition was urging the government to complete its financial obligations to the workers prior to signing the concession agreement with the new owners of the airport facilities. This signing is scheduled for today.
"The fact is that the established industrial relations practice of workers being disconnected from companies that are no longer in existence and the payment of redundancy and pension and other benefits must be honoured," Mr. Bartlett said.
"In this way the workers have options and the new owners will have options as to who they wish to employ." He said the Government needed to explain whether its decision to change that arrangement resulted from the shortfall in expected payments from the Vancouver Consortium or if it was the inability of the AAJ to find the necessary funds.
