The Aviation Workers’ Union (AWU), Enugu State chapter, has refused the federal government’s concession of the Enugu airport, warning that industrial action may follow if the decision is not reversed.
The Union of the Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, the National Union of Air Transport Employees, and the Association of Nigeria Aviation Professionals made this known to the general public in a joint letter to the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development.
The letter was jointly signed by the general secretaries of the three unions: Frances Akinjole, ATSSSAN; Sikiru Waheed, General Secretary of NUATE; and Abdul Rasaq Saidu, Secretary General of ANAP, reports Daily Independent.
Festus Keyamo described the signing as the conclusion of a “painstaking and tedious process” that had lasted several years, involving negotiations, due diligence, and consultations with key stakeholders, including aviation unions.
He assured that the agreement prioritised the welfare of workers at the airport, amid persistent concerns by aviation unions over job losses arising from concession exercises, stressing that aviation workers at the Enugu airport would retain their status as federal employees.
They alleged that workers’ representatives on the concession committee were sidelined during the final stages of the process, thereby excluding labour from deliberations on key employment- and welfare-related issues.
According to them, necessary Labour provisions that ought to have been embedded in the contract were ignored, despite earlier expectations that a separate agreement addressing workers’ interests would be concluded with the unions.
They further accused the authorities of conducting the process without transparency, warning that the development had already triggered discontent among aviation workers nationwide.
The unions said, “No agreement was ever signed with our unions in this regard. Hence, the process was incomplete to warrant the signing off of the concession agreement of the Enugu airport, as it happened last week.
“This patent lack of transparency that envelops the processes that culminated in the signing of the agreement has caused serious acrimonious agitation among the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria staffers across Nigeria.”
Describing the action as a “flagrant display of insensitivity” to staff who could be affected by the concession, the unions formally rejected the agreement and called on the minister to halt and reverse the process.
