3 aviation unions condemn exclusion from airports concession agreement
Comrade Ben Nnabue,NUATE President addressing the workers
Three aviation unions in Nigeria have condemn their exclusion from the plan concession some airports in the country.
They are Association of Nigerian Aviation Professional(ANAP),Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria(ATSSSAN) and the National Union of Air Transport Employees(NUATE).
They expressed their disagreement with the plans because they were not given the opportunity to make their own contributions to the planned concession agreement
During the congress all FAAN offices and gates were locked and no worker was allowed in while the human resource director who threatened to open the gate was denied access by the aggrieved unions. Addressing the workers, the President of NUATE Comrade Ben Nnabue, said the unions learned that the government was going ahead to concession some airports in a manner that was not known to any of them. He said the minister had told them that he was not going into concessions but that the unions were surprised to see documents on concession from the ministry. Nnabue said the unions have lost confidence in the management of the agencies attending meetings with the minister. “Posterity will not forgive them if they go to represent FAAN and sell FAAN out without calling stakeholders. There is no information that is hidden forever” Nnabue said in the document that was paraded had in its Full Business Case 50 years and in the agreement 80 years Nnabue queried if they were buying the land or concessioning adding that management concession was for only five years saying he has never seen any agreement of 80 years The NUATE president stated that Mr Festus Keyamo had earlier told them that labour issues will be discussed with the unions adding that in the documents being circulated had written legal issues “ They didn’t discuss with us and they are writing issues affecting our members” The president of ANAP Comrade Adedayo Alale said the minister told all the union leaders that all labour issues will be resolved before concession Alale said the process of concessioning of Enugu airport was almost concluded while that of Portharcourt and Kano have also been planned . Also speaking at the congress, they 3rd National President of ATSSSAN, Comrade John Ogbe said no union or worker was afraid of concession but were against concession through the back door, not transparent and non inclusive adding that aviation workers were critical stakeholders and must be carried along. Ogbe noted that in the last plan the unions had the opportunity to study the Outline Business Case , saying that what they witnessed recently were unsolicited Outline Business Cases. He said the government want to adopt Full Business Case without the workers inputs and urged government to dialogue with workers regarding concession. At the end of the Congress, the unions resolved that the consequential adjustment of the new minimum wage must be implemented by next month. They also resolved that all issues concerning Conditions of Service within the next two months and necessary approval must be given while the issue of concession should be transparent. |