Aviation Workers Begin Warning Strike Today Over CoS, Welfare

Barring a last minute change of mind, aviation workers’ unions will, today, embark on a two-day warning strike in protest against non-release of the new Condition of Service (CoS) in the last seven years.

The industrial action, which was forewarned last week, will ground both local and international flight operations, as workers in various sections of the industry deny services to airplanes.

While negotiation has since started at the weekend, sources at the Ministry of Aviation said the strike is illegal. They cited that the action contravenes provisions of the Federal Airports Authority Act 2022 that accords “essential service status” to airport operations and bars workers from going on strike.

The coalition of aviation workers unions, made up of members of the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN), National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE), Association of Nigeria Aviation Professionals (ANAP) and Amalgamated Union of Public Corporation Civil Service Technical and Recreation Services Employees (AUPCCSTRSE), recently bemoaned the non-implementation of the CoS about seven years after it was negotiated with the workers.

They also rued the non-implementation of minimum wage consequential adjustments and arrears for the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) since 2019, and the planned demolition exercise of all the agency’s buildings in Lagos by the Minister of Aviation for an airport city project, but without consideration for workers that will be displaced.

A notice of the two-day warning strike earlier issued to workers of all aviation agencies warned that the strike will hold from April 17 to 18, with the likelihood of an indefinite strike thereafter.