KINGSTON, Jamaica — The Bustamante Industrial Trade Union (BITU) has won bargaining rights on behalf of the cabin crew of the recently inaugurated Fly Jamaica Airline.

The airline’s flight crew, comprising cabin and senior cabin crew, voted solidly for the BITU in a poll which lasted over four days, July 28-29 and August 7-8, at Jamaica Airways Limited, Holborn Road, New Kingston.

The union will be meeting shortly with the entire bargaining unit, to discuss the benefits of unionisation and to hear their challenges and select delegates. The union will also be working with the staff to compile a list of salary, fringe benefits and conditions of employment claims, which will be served on the management of the airline.

Fly Jamaica Airways, which is based at the Norman Manley International Airport, is the newest Jamaican airline. It was certified by the Jamaica Civil Aviation Authority (JCAA) in September 2012, and was cleared to operate in the United States by US authorities in December that year. Its inaugural flight from Kingston to New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport in the United States was made on 14 February, 2013.

The BITU currently represents the flight crew of Caribbean Airlines Limited and has a history of representation in the airline industry as far back as Air Jamaica Limited.