Three aviation unions; National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), Association of Nigeria Aviation Professionals (NAPA), Amalgamated Union of Public Corporation of Public Corporation Civil Service Technical and Recreational Services Employees (AUPCTRE), said that there was no going back in its plans to ground activities in three agencies starting from Monday.
The agencies are the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMET) and the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria.
Speaking on Saturday,Comrade Ocheme Aba, General Secretary, NUATE,said that aviation activities would be grounded totally on for two days next week.
Aba said that the unions had exercised patience for nine years on the matter.
He regretted that salaries and wages commission was intentionally depriving workers in the sector their rights to better living, lamenting that since 2013 that the cause started, some of the workers had retired, while others died without benefitting from the new conditions of service
He expressed confidence that the aforementioned agencies were willing to implement the new structure, but said they could not do so without the approval of the commission.
He commended Sirika for being the first aviation minister to assist the workers for the implementation of the new wages by visiting the salaries and wages commission personally, but regretted the efforts did not yield result so far.
He said: “We are grateful to the aviation minister and the agencies who have supported us since the struggle began. Several CEOs have told us that they documents have been approved by the ministry of aviation, but we can’t implement due to the refusal of the salaries and wages commission to give its approval.
“We will ground activities in the entire aviation industry on Monday and Tuesday and after that, if after one week, we are not attended to, we will commence indefinite strike.”
