Air transport workers may begin strike July 5

The Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, ATSSSAN has threatened to call out its members for strike if the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, failed to meet its demands.
The national president of ATSSSAN, Benjamin Okewu, issued the threat in a statement in Lagos.
Mr. Okewu said the union demands that all pending issues on workers’ welfare before the NCAA management should be resolved before July 5.
“It was gathered that so many outstanding employees’ files on welfare matters, allowances, travel claims, have been piled up on the desk of the Director-General of NCAA, Engr. Benedict Adeyileka, and unattended to since in the last 10 to 12 months,” he said.
He expressed the union’s displeasure with the way the aviation agencies were handling the 2014 staff training.
The ATSSSAN boss also demanded that the union should be furnished with the staff training proposals by all agencies in the aviation sector.
The agencies are NCAA, Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, NAMA, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, Accident Investigation Bureau, AIB, and the Nigeria College of Aviation Technology.
Mr. Okewu argued that human capacity development in the sector could not be ignored due to the expanding investment prospects and safety challenges in the industry worldwide.
He, however, called for the full implementation of the approved conditions of service for workers in the industry.
He said the union would move its national secretariat temporarily to the NCAA headquarters until the issues of staff welfare were resolved.