Union wants to discuss BWIA finances with Govt By Curtis Rampersad Express 06.07.03 EVEN as the Government decided that cash-strapped carrier BWIA should approach its unions for further staff concessions, the major organisation representing airline workers has said it would like to meet with the Government because it is unclear about BWIA's financial position. And BWIA management is maintaining that it presented staff concession options to the union about a year ago but is still in negotiations even now. As the airline deals with its financial state, the Stock Exchange said yesterday it had granted BWIA a further extension to June 30 to file its annual report with the Exchange. The Exchange said BWIA had advised that recent developments had delayed the finalisation of audited financial consolidated results and that the airline would work to ensure the report was filed on or before the extended date. Corporate communications director Clint Williams said the Government's statements on BWIA were a demonstration of the reality of the airline's cash situation coming home to roost. Management has been trying to get concessions through discussions with the unions representing BWIA since last year, he said. While he would not give details of what management was asking of employees, initial information was that the airline proposed salary cuts of between ten per cent to as much as 25 per cent for senior executives. Revised flight and duty times for pilots have also been proposed. But president of the Aviation Communications and Allied Workers Union (ACAWU) Christopher Abraham said yesterday the unions did not know what BWIA's true financial position was and would like to get more information. Abraham said the unions would like to get a guarantee that no more jobs would be lost. They were also waiting to see what a due diligence exercise of BWIA by Canadian auditing firm Zwaig would tell about the airline's finances *************************************************** 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 *********************************************************