P.S.U. Rep. Says There Was No Sickout

Ray Davis

At around five-thirty this evening, air traffic controllers and Public Service Union reps finally emerged from their meeting with Civil Aviation officials. As we’ve showed you, those officials have claimed complete ignorance of any grievances which could have caused any so-called sickout. We say so-called because P.S.U. rep., Ray Davis, says there was none. As to the grievances, those are apparently very real, and Davis says those grievances formed a large part of the discussion, which he says ended amicably and with a sense of critical understanding.

Ray Davis, Public Service Union

“Some of those issues in terms of the staffing, in terms of equipment, all of those were issues that were made and all of those were issues that the C.E.O. and the director spoke to the officers. And I must say again because they had been issues that had been raised and are continuing, what we got in there was a certain air from the C.E.O. and from the director in terms of the stuff they are doing to mitigate some of the problems that are there.”

Reporter

“Okay, so then, when will the air traffic controllers return to work and under what terms will they see the improvements that they have been agitating for?”

Ray Davis

“Umm, I’m not sure about agitating or any of those words that you are imputing. And I am not even countenancing what has been said in the media about a sick-out. There was no such thing as a sick-out. There was what myself would call an unhappy convergence of coincidence. So those persons were not boycotting or doing anything like that to call attention to anything and that was borne out quite well at the meeting there. So we separated two issues. Is there an issue of a sick-out? No there is not an issue of a sick-out. All of that was explained in there. Then we went to the second stage which was okay what are the issues that are lingering and new issues if there were any and that is what we dealt with at the meeting.”