Picketing Indigenous Airlines: The Issues

Recently, labour
unions in the Aviation Industry threatened to picket airlines that do not allow their workers to join the different unions that exist in the sector and also condemned the airlines for failing to employ indigenous pilots and engineers into their organisation.
For proper appreciation, the major unions in the industry include the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), Air Transport Employees Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN) and the National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE).
The Union Leaders expressed disappointment that beside Aero Contractors that allows its workers to enage in union activities, none of the other indigenous airline operators permit workers to be unionised.
The issue raised by the workers union against the airlines appear to be increasing and degenerating as tempers rose recently when the union leaders discovered that workers of some of the airlines were owed salaries and other allowances.
The union leaders could not understand the fact that a sensitive sector like the air transport industry, some airlines would not pay remuneration to staff, including pilots and engineers and recalled with sadness the fate of workers of the defunct Air Nigeria that were denied salaries for months and when the airline closed shop, they could not even claim pension because they were not members of the labour unions.
They argued that there are about seven airlines in the sector carrying out scheduled operations who allegedly prevented their workers from joining unions, namely: Arik, Med-View, Chanchangi, Overland, IRS and Dana Airlines.
The workers union remarked that whereas all foreign carriers allowed their staff to engage in union activities in the sector, their indigenous countrparts except Aero are hindering their workers from joining the unions so that they would not fight  the excesses of their management.
According to the union, one of the negative effects of stopping the workers from belonging to their various labour unions was to prevent them from forming a formidable front in demanding their rights, adding that the airlines could not have owed their workers several months salary if they were members of the union.
Secondly, the labour leaders argued that safety could be jeopardised in the sector as a result of unpaid salaries to workers, particularly at the period when the federal government are taking pragmatic approach to ensure safety in the industry through the transformation agenda.
Addressing newsmen recently on the issue, the Acting Secretary General of NUATE, Mr Abdulkareem Motajo, said the unions in the aviation sector were planning to storm the airlines and enforce unionism in their organisations, questioning why the local airlines found it difficult to permit their staff participate in union activities unlike their foreign counterparts.
Mr Motajo assured that the unions would do all within its powers to actualise total unionism in the industry. “What we should ask ourselves is why are these airlines not comfortable with their staff joining the unions? This does not argue well for our industry, especially when the foreign carriers allow their staff to join us. We will surely do something about it soon.
NUATE also accused the airlines of not employing indigenous pilots and engineers, stressing that they had a penchant for expatriates and threatened to ground their operations.
In the case of NAAPE, they were irked by the recent comment by the Chairman, Senate Committee  on Aviation, Senator Hope Uzodinma, who said that expatriates still dominate the Nigerian Aviation Industry due to lack of capable and efficient technical personnel among Nigerians.
Senator Uzodinma posited that the scenario would continue for a long time until the Nigerian College of Aviation Techonology (NCAT), Zaria, Kaduna State, was repositioned to produce the needed manpower in the sector.
NAAPE Executive, however, expressed reservation over the senator’s observation, noting that several young Nigerian graduates from various aviation colleges around the world were roaming the streets without any means of livelihood.
The union warned the airlines to change their attitude towards Nigerian professionals otherwise, it will in conjunction with other leading unions in the sector ground their operations.
President of NAAPE, Mr Isaac Balami, opined that Nigeria has enough technical manpower to take over the management of airlines and aircraft in the industry, adding that preference for expatriates was an aberration when both possess the same qualification and experience.
On the contrary, Senator Uzodinma said many Nigerian pilots and engineers are not type-rated on modern aircraft. He believes that since the demise of the Nigeria Airways, it has become difficult to groom young pilots and train them on different aircraft types.
According to him, existing airlines do not have the resources and time to embark on such training which largely national carriers and mega airlines undertake.
Besides, the Deputy Managing Director and Head of Flight Operations, Arik Air, Mr Ado Sanusi is quoted as saying that his airline had employed about 120 Nigerians as pilots and engineers.
Sanusi said “we are sending 120 pilots to the United KINGDOM for training, we conducted optitude test for them and these are the ones that are qualified, and we engaged Nigerian engineers and  we have sent for training.
However, in swift reaction to the planned picketing of domestic airlines by the aviation unions, the operators of the airlines have denied any policy from the companies barring workers from joining the unions.
The Managing Director of IRS Airlines, Mr Yemi Dada said the airline doesnot have any policy that stops workers from belonging of unions and challenged the union executives to find out from the workers if they were genuinely interested in joining the unions or not.
He noted that the threat by the unions to picket the airlines would not improve anything if they were not sure whether the workers were actually interested in belonging to unions since the process is voluntary.
Industry operators are of the opinion that union leaders should think and reflect on what led to the collapse of the Nigeria Airways and Air Nigeria as well as ask themselves why is it that Nigerian airlines are not doing well?  “You ought to have viable industry before talking about unionism.”
Rather, than confrontation, the union leaders should think of ways of ensuring the survival of the industry by urging government to take actions that could help to grow the aviation sector and boost air travel.
Experts say multiple taxation was heaping so much cost on the airline operators, adding that the operating environment was not conducive as the cost of aviation fuel in Nigeria is the highest in the world and advised union leaders to shelve the picketing of airlines to save the industry.