As early as 6.00 a.m. members of National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE) and the Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN) occupied the entrance gate into the airline premises, preventing workers from gaining access into the facility.
Thereby leaving passengers stranded yesterday at the domestic wings of the Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMA), Ikeja, Lagos. Mr. Ocheme Aba, The Secretary General, NUATE, said the action was necessary following the refusal of the airline to accede to their demands.
“First of all these decisions were taken unilaterally and based on labour practice every decision that would affect in terms of payment of the workers has to be negotiated, there has to be a collective bargaining agreement, that’s the labour and yet they didn’t even keep to that promise.”
“For people who were even coming to work, they were paying them less than 50 per cent of their salaries who were struggling on their own to find their way to work during that period of lockdown go businesses for which they were making more than normal money and the people at home whom they say they were going to pay 20 per cent they didn’t pay, they paid for only one month and thereafter nothing again till date.”
