ST JOHN’S, Antigua – Dr Ralph Gonsalves, prime minister of St Vincent & the Grenadines, one of the three LIAT shareholder governments, said the airline’s employees are essential workers, echoing controversial sentiments made by LIAT’s chairman last month. “(Work) in the aviation business, certainly in LIAT, is an essential services. If you don’t accept that you don’t live in the real world today,” he said. “It is as essential as being the worker in the electricity services or as in water.”