THE National Workers Union (NWU) yesterday signed off on a 14 per cent salary hike for all but two category of workers at the national carrier at an emergency meeting between union representatives and the management.

The signing of the agreement came just hours after the Observer broke the story that the board of the cash-strapped airline had been asked to tender its resignation to
the Government.

The rush to sign off on the agreement comes amidst concerns by the union that a new board could rescind on the agreement reached earlier this week with the existing board for a 14 per cent increase.

A Government spokesman confirmed that the airline's board had been asked to resign, but there was no official word last night on when a new board was likely to be appointed.

Prime Minister Bruce Golding said on Monday that the airline's loss was expected to exceed the US$170 million it accumulated last year, and that Cabinet took some decisions to strengthen the approach towards privatising the cash-strapped airline by March 31.

Yesterday, Vincent Morrison, president of the NWU, said the emergency meeting between the union and management was to finalise and sign off on a number of labour agreements for the various groups within the 2,400 staff complement at the company.

"As we speak the major current labour agreements have been finalised at the proposed 14 per cent increase," he said.

Asked if the union was concerned that this decision could be reversed when a new board takes office, given the severity of the loss at the airline, Morrison said the union would not allow that to happen.

"The NWU wouldn't take it lightly that wage agreement reached with one board and one set of management is revoked by a new board and new management coming in," he told the Observer.

Labour Minister Pearnel Charles said his ministry would not support any reversal of this agreement reached and signed off on.

"The Ministry of Labour would not be supporting any reversal of the decision arrive at between the management and the workers," Charles told the Observer.

He said he didn't think the government would make an attempt to reverse any decision arrived at by the union and the management, since they (the management) would be acting on behalf of the Government. "That don't seem sensible to me," he said.

".I don't think the management would arrive at a settlement without the appropriate minister knowing about it," he reiterated.

In the meantime, Morrison blamed the airline's board for what he described as a "lack of experience and expertise to deal with the serious financial situation at the company.
He also claimed that the airline was not given the opportunity to manage itself because of continuous interference from the finance ministry.

The NWU president said too, that with the present 'uncertainties', Air Jamaica workers were uneasy and had not been officially informed that a new board was to be put in place, a view supported by the airline's workers at the Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston.

"Right now we don't even know what is happening because we have not been told anything other than what we read in the Observer this morning," said a union delegate who chose to remain anonymous.

The increase signed off on yesterday will be retroactive to January of last year for all categories of workers except the flight attendants and the maintenance group. Morrison said these two groups did not sign yesterday as they are requesting that some adjustments be made to their agreement. They are, however, expected to sign off by this month-end.