Unions picket airlines

There is a looming crisis in the aviation sector over plans by aviation labour unions to picket some airlines today.

The unions, in commemoration of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) 2017 World Day for Decent Work, had vowed to picket four airlines, including Air Peace, Med-View, Azman Air and First Nation.

General Secretary of the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), Comrade Olayinka Abioye, said the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) would visit the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA) General Aviation Terminal (GAT) to campaign against casualisation of workers and picket one or two airlines that, “have seemingly refused to recognise our unions and refused their workers to join unions.”

However, the airlines have already kicked against the planned picketing which they said was illegal, even though Abioye said the picketing would hold as planned.

Air Peace, in its reaction, cautioned the unions against the plan, saying it would not sit idly by and allow anyone disrupt its flight operations or prevent its guests from flying.

In a statement by its Corporate Communications Manager, Mr. Chris Iwarah, the airline dismissed the unions’ claims of casualisation as, “a deliberate falsehood to confer legitimacy on the illegal picketing”, insisting that Air Peace had no single case of casual staff in its employ.

A manager of Azman Air, Saminu Tanko, told Daily Trust that the airline was not aware of the planned picketing by the unions.

When contacted, spokesman of NCAA, Mr. Sam Adurogboye, said the matter was between the unions and the airlines, saying the regulatory body would not meddle in it unless invited to intervene.