NCAA union members shelve strike, meet with aviation minister
Staff of Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, and its allied unions have postponed the industrial action they started in Lagos on Wednesday. The Aviation union members picketed the headquarters of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, during the early hours of Wednesday in Lagos.
The four unions are: National Union of Air Transport Employees, NUATE, Association of Nigeria Aviation Professionals, ANAP, Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, ATSSSAN, and
the National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers, NAAPE, all participated in the strike.
According to reports, meanwhile, Minister of state for Aviation, Hadi Sirika had stepped into the face-off between aviation workers and their employer, NCAA.
The minister invited the parties to Abuja to address issues raised by the workers after the four unions involved in the matter, shut activities at the headquarters of the NCAA in Lagos.
A 7-day ultimatum was issued to the concerned authorities to accede to the unions’ demands before the industrial action. After the expiration of the ultimatum on Monday, Secretaries-General of the unions held a meeting on Tuesday where they issued the directive for the NCAA staff to commence strike.
The unions are irked over the organogram approved by the Ministry of Aviation, which they say was at variance with the agreement reached with the committee set up by the ministry to review the organogram.
In a joint statement signed at the end of a meeting of the secretaries General of the four unions on Tuesday evening, the unions are demanding the immediate implementation of the new organogram for NCAA as agreed with the Ministry of Transportation, Aviation, the Management of the NCAA and the unions.
Others are the implementation of the reviewed conditions of service as negotiated and the inauguration of the Governing Board of the NCAA.
The unions said they were disappointed that the Ministry completely neglected their ultimatum and the NCAA reacted with only halfhearted measures as sign that they were not ready to address the issues.
How the impasse is going to be resolved in the next one week, before the minister leaves office, remains to be seen.
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