Tweet
Friday, 06 November 2009
Another attempt is being made to get the Government to break its silence on the long-awaited divestment of Air Jamaica.
With the Bruce Golding administration yet to respond to claims that negotiations for the sale of the financially troubled airline has collapsed, trade unions are expressing fear that the entity could be left languishing.
The National Workers Union (NWU) says there are obvious signs that the Air Jamaica Divestment Committee has hit a stumbling block and is remaining silent on the matter.
Granville Valentine, NWU Vice-President.Granville Valentine, NWU Vice-President, is insisting that the Government provide a comprehensive update on the status of the proposed sale of the airline.
"We are also concern over the fact that we hear news coming out of Government that the deal between them and Indigo Partners has fallen through. We haven't gotten any official word on that yet and indeed, we're surprised that the administration has not yet said anything about this to the country and by a lesser extent to the Air Jamaica Steering Committee," he said.
In a recent interview with RJR News, Dr. Omar Davies, Opposition Spokesman on Finance, said he received information that Air Jamaica had been taken off the auction block.
Pilots should be given a chance to outline Air J bid - BITU
And with increasing signs that the Government is struggling to find a buyer for Air Jamaica, another trade union is urging the Divestment Committee to seriously consider a bid from the airline's pilots.
Kavon Gayle, BITU President General.The Bustamante Industrial Trade Union (BITU) believes the Jamaica Airline Pilots Association should be allowed to appear before the Committee to present its case for the acquisition of the airline.
"We know that the (Association submitted their bid for the airline) some three or four weeks ago (and) we have been advised that the pilots have had no response whether from the Government or the Divestment Committee. We believe that since this submission was an employee driven submission in terms of acquiring the national airline, the Divestment Committee should at least give the pilots an invitation to outline what their proposals are," said Kavon Gyale, BITU President-General.