Govt fed-up with BWIA By ANDY JOHNSON Express 06.06.03 WITH Prime Minister Patrick Manning declaring that the Government was "totally fed-up" with having to come to the rescue of BWIA, the Government decided yesterday the airline should approach trade unions, representing its workers, to seek further concessions on cost-cutting. This, Trade and Industry Minister Ken Valley said, was the latest effort being made by the Government as a condition for providing any more financial assistance to the troubled airline. Valley also added that while the departure of BWIA president and chief executive officer Conrad Aleong was welcome, there were other measures regarding the sought-after management restructuring which the board might consider. He said it was a matter for the board to look at what else was necessary in the management restructuring that would put the airline on a more solid footing to continue its operations. He also said it was his understanding an interim arrangement was in place for an executive management structure with one person responsible for administration and another for finance. In the face of repeated questioning on this matter, Valley said the Government could not and would not dictate to the BWIA board as to what else it should do as far as restructuring of the management was concerned. Asked whether the Government was mandating the airline to break existing agreements with the trade unions in seeking to negotiate these concessions, Valley said it was clear to all concerned the airline would not survive with the current arrangements in place. In response to another question, Valley said he felt optimistic the unions representing workers at BWIA would respond in a more positive manner this time to requests for further concessions in the current circumstances. Unions representing the workers at BWIA remained skeptical in the main when the airline under Aleong sought a range of concessions aimed at reducing costs when the bottom began falling out of its operations late last year. Both Manning and Valley were speaking during the post-Cabinet news conference at Whitehall, Port of Spain. Asked what his reaction was to the reported position taken by chairman Lawrence Duprey in the current situation, Manning said as Minister of Finance he "took note of it". He said he read in the newspapers the comments attributed to Duprey, based on which "you are free to come to your own conclusions, as, indeed, I am free to do so". There was not more he wished to say on the matter, he said, because the Government was not in the business of issuing threats and also that the Government held to the position it reserved the right to review the composition of the BWIA board at the appropriate time. Pressed as to whether this ought to be the extent of his response, against perceptions the Government was fed-up of having to seek rescue for the airline, Manning said this was correct. "You are absolutely correct that the Government is totally fed-up of this and far from not knowing where we are heading, our discussions this morning seem to be heading in a certain direction," Manning said. He added, however, that the Government wanted to be guided by the considerations of consultants who have been contracted to make recommendations on the way forward for BWIA. He said the consultants were to meet on the matter Sunday, following which there would likely be a Cabinet meeting on Monday for further consideration of the issue. Under the rubric of Regional Air Transportation, the crisis at BWIA and the continuing financial difficulties affecting LIAT and Air Jamaica will form the basis of major discussions at the upcoming 28th summit of Caricom heads of government in Montego Bay, Jamaica at month's end. Those discussions will seek to push ahead with considerations for the formation of a regional airline, a long-held desire among many governments, airline and tourism industry executives in the region. *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Mas Site: www.tntisland.com/tntrecords/mas2003/ Site of the Week: http://www.natalielaughlin.com/ TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************