Headlines:
| Protest to save the Lovebird |
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| Monday, 08 February 2010 | |
 Air Jamaica workers protesting. This was to intensify their bid for the government to sell Air Jamaica to the Jamaica Airline Pilots Association (JALPA) instead of the Trinidad owned Caribbean Airlines. Grim determination was the primary emotion registered on the faces of the protestors, many bearing multi-coloured placards blared varying messages such as "Don't shoot the Lovebird!" and "Don't sell us out again!". From a nearby car, loudspeakers alternately pumped Martin Luther King's speeches and inspirational Bob Marley tunes while protesters handed out flyers and stickers to passing well-wishers.  Their presence elicited
some public support judging from the shouts and the tooting of horns from
motorists.The message was the same as it has been since the start of the campaign: to try to convince the government that the Air Jamaica staff was ready and waiting to take the ailing Lovebird off the public books. There was a nationalistic twist. "If we're gonna give Air Jamaica to the Trinidadians and we keep the debt why not give it to the pilots and keep the debt. Why should we give it away and still have the debt?" asked one protestor. Secret Air J deal with IMF - NWU  Granville Valentine, NWU Vice President. "You cannot just shut out the Jamaican people from discussions and important decision making of this sort where some 10,000 Jamaicans will lose their jobs. You cannot just willy-nilly get up and make a decision that affects people's life. "There is the private conversation that is taking place behind closed doors with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and there is the letter that we're aware of that has been sent to the Fund and we the Jamaican people have idea what it entails," said Granville Valentine, NWU Vice President.  ICIs join in protest. The Air Jamaica staff protest even got support from some Informal Commercial Importers (ICIs). "We can't depend on American Airlines like how we depend on Air Jamaica because American Airlines won't carry our boxes which we have to carry ... Air Jamaica carries our boxes and that's why we're here today," said one ICI, Merlene Forde. |