…NAHCO Mgt. to speak on development soon
Local and foreign airline passengers at the Lagos airport are stranded as staff of the Nigeria Aviation Handling Company, NAHCO embark on strike midnight of today.
Some of the local and foreign airlines the company handles their check-in and ramp services cannot board their flight or attend to in-bound flights and other passenger and cargo facilitation process.
Qatar Airways was the first victim this morning as the passenger filled aircraft had to return to Doha after landing in Lagos due to the absence of ramp services.
Domestic airlines also handled by NAHCO like Air Peace, Dana and others have had to delay and reschedule their flights due to the the strike by NAHCO staff but not without notifying the passengers via email and their social media platforms.
The NAHCO Management was alleged to have been informed about the strike but did nothing about it.
The grouse with the management is failure to review current staff salaries called for since June last year as contained in a notice sent by the Secretaries General of the two unions in the companies, National Union of Air Transport Employees, NUATE and the Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, ATSSSAN to the staff.
The notice as signed by the NUATE and ATSSSAN Secretaries General, Comrades Ocheme Aba and Frances Akinjole read, “As all ultimatum issued by our unions have gone unheeded and the Management continues to play on our intelligence through rescheduling of purposeless meetings, we have come to the conclusion that the management is clearly decided against harkening to our cries of fairness and equity despite overwhelming evidence in support of our demand”.
It adds, “….this action shall be indefinite until otherwise directed by the secretaries of the unions”.
It was also learnt that the call to review the current staff salaries was not only made to NAHCO but also the Skyway Aviation Handling Company, SAHCO whose management quickly met with the unions and reached an amicable solution to avert the strike.
Management of NAHCO has assured a response to the development in a statement soon.
