ST. CROIX — Operations resumed today at Seaborne Airlines with flights taking off on schedule after employees staged a walkout Sunday and closed the seaplane terminals on St. Croix and St. Thomas shortly after noon, protesting mistreatment from management now that the company is under new ownership.
The issues that concerned employees and pushed them to participate in Sunday’s job action included a lack of communication from management, especially during the recent three-week closure when the seaplane was down.
There was also an incident involving an employee who worked Saturday but was denied compensation for the time worked due to arriving late.
READ MORE: Seaborne employees take job action, citing poor treatment from management and unfair practices
Before returning to work, the employees called for a meeting with management. They had a chance to speak with the company’s new chief executive officer, Darrell Richardson, this morning at the Svend Aage Ovesen Jr. Seaplane Terminal on St. Croix.
Richardson updated WTJX on the status of the airlines’ operations as he discussed the employees’ concerns, operational improvements, and a vision for growth across the Caribbean.
“We had a little incident yesterday with some of the employees, but we worked our way through that this morning, and everybody’s back at work,” Richardson said, noting that there were no problems. “We’re going to be doing a lot of work here in St Croix and trying to improve the working facility where they’re at. They’re working in very hot conditions, and so we’re going to take care of that for them.”
In addition to repairing the air conditioning, Richardson said the plan is to improve communication between the staff and management by hiring a director of ground operations.
“So, they’ll have a direct supervisor based here in St. Croix that they can go to with their problems, and so we think that’ll help,” he said.
Richardson said Seaborne employees at the stations on St. Croix and St. Thomas will report to the new director of ground operations, noting the person has 50 years of experience.
The CEO also addressed concerns among employees about being overlooked during the company’s transition out of bankruptcy. He said it is easy for employees to feel like they are being left out, especially as Seaborne focuses on growing the business.
“We’re trying to put a lot of word out there about the company and everything, and it’s easy for people based here to feel like, ‘hey, I’m getting left behind, or they’re not paying enough attention to me,’” Richardson said, acknowledging that those feelings were not unfounded. “And honestly, that’s probably not wrong. I mean, that’s probably what’s been going on.”
Regarding pay disparities during the shutdown, Richardson clarified management got paid because they work on an annual salary while the staff are hourly. He also addressed a specific incident where an employee was not paid for working on Saturday due to clocking in late.
“We just took care of that,” he said. “So, that’s resolved. They’re going to get paid.”
Looking ahead, Richardson outlined an ambitious plan to expand Seaborne’s fleet and operations.
We’re going to go from one airplane to three airplanes by the end of the year,” he said. “So, we’re going to open new stations, we’re going to have new routes and everything, but we got to get this working. We got to get this working reliably first, and so we will get there.”
He explained the rationale behind the fleet expansion.
“Two aircraft will be flying every day, and one aircraft will be a spare so that way the reliability will be there,” he said. “Like right now, we’re flying one airplane with no backup, so when we have a situation like we just had with the engine where we got to pull a part, send it to the factory and get it fixed, the airplane sits until it gets back.”
Richardson expressed optimism about the company’s future.
“The new ownership is very excited about it; they’re putting the money behind it,” he said. “They’ve already invested a substantial amount of money for improvements. We’re going to continue to grow, and we’re going to spread this model across the Caribbean.”
