WITH depressing predictability, the prospect of an airport shutdown was raised over the weekend. From today, islanders travelling to or from the island must cross their fingers and check their travel insurance.
That it should be a bank holiday weekend and a half-term holiday week to boot is equally unsurprising. It provides an opportunity for maximum disruption to people’s lives and piles up the pressure on the States to buckle to the airport firefighters’ demands.
For the island to still be in this position after more than a year of negotiations is scarcely credible. And it is deeply worrying that there has been no indication of any progress in the fortnight since the last interim deal ran out.
A sense of bloody-minded obstinacy, like generals in the First World War, is all pervasive. No one is moving from their entrenched position. And the media blackout imposed on all parties only heightens the sense of a group of people isolated and unaccountable to the real world.
The casualties in this war, of course, are the passengers and the island’s reputation as a business and holiday destination.
The latest meeting, on Thursday night, appears to have failed to broker a ceasefire. Instead, it served only to show how far apart the parties are with the States pay negotiating body, the Public Sector Remuneration Committee, not even present.
And hopes that the States industrial disputes office might step in as a third party to find a compromise were again counted out on a technicality.
Under such circumstances, it is hard to find room for much optimism.
One thing is clear: the island cannot remain at the mercy of one belligerent workforce ad infinitum. If the firefighters will not go to arbitration and the two sides cannot agree a deal acceptable to both, then a third way must be found. If that means a radical step, then so be it.
The airport management has talked of bringing in firefighters on contract from the UK. If that is what is needed to break this impasse then the sooner they start training and familiarisation the better.
Radical step needed in airport strife
WITH depressing predictability, the prospect of an airport shutdown was raised over the weekend. From today, islanders travelling to or from the island must cross their fingers and check their travel insurance.
That it should be a bank holiday weekend and a half-term holiday week to boot is equally unsurprising. It provides an opportunity for maximum disruption to people’s lives and piles up the pressure on the States to buckle to the airport firefighters’ demands.
For the island to still be in this position after more than a year of negotiations is scarcely credible. And it is deeply worrying that there has been no indication of any progress in the fortnight since the last interim deal ran out.
A sense of bloody-minded obstinacy, like generals in the First World War, is all pervasive. No one is moving from their entrenched position. And the media blackout imposed on all parties only heightens the sense of a group of people isolated and unaccountable to the real world.
The casualties in this war, of course, are the passengers and the island’s reputation as a business and holiday destination.
The latest meeting, on Thursday night, appears to have failed to broker a ceasefire. Instead, it served only to show how far apart the parties are with the States pay negotiating body, the Public Sector Remuneration Committee, not even present.
And hopes that the States industrial disputes office might step in as a third party to find a compromise were again counted out on a technicality.
Under such circumstances, it is hard to find room for much optimism.
One thing is clear: the island cannot remain at the mercy of one belligerent workforce ad infinitum. If the firefighters will not go to arbitration and the two sides cannot agree a deal acceptable to both, then a third way must be found. If that means a radical step, then so be it.
The airport management has talked of bringing in firefighters on contract from the UK. If that is what is needed to break this impasse then the sooner they start training and familiarisation the better.
Article posted on 25th May, 2009 - 2.30pm