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Airport cargo handlers threaten to withdraw services

By BusinessNews Staff on April 29, 2015

Cargo handlers at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos on Monday threatened to stop work following the sacking of their colleagues by Skyway Aviation Handling Company Limited.

The workers, under the aegis of the National Union of Air Transport Employees and the Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, demanded that the sacked workers be recalled by the management of SAHCOL.

A statement signed by the general secretaries of both unions stated that any industrial action by the workers would not only affect airlines, but would drastically impact the entire aviation sector.

It stated, “We are disturbed to think that the management of SAHCOL may be acting a dubious script to create crisis in the aviation industry since any industrial action by the unions would not only affect airline operations, but also impose untold hardship on the general public.

“We demand the immediate resumption and conclusion of conditions of service as well as the reversal of the management’s decision to dismiss Aminu Kolawole, Chairman, ATSSSAN; Chukwu Jude, Chairman, NUATE; Immoto Lawson, Secretary, ATSSSAN; and Kingsley Ejiogu, Secretary, NUATE.

“The general public should by this notice be informed that the unions shall stop the services of their members in SAHCOL until these demands are fully met and unreserved apologies tendered to our officers who have been subjected to enormous trauma.”

It was learnt that the sacked employees were retrenched by the SAHCOL management for engaging in activities that it did not approve of.

The unions noted that their national secretariats had been demanding the mandatory review of the conditions of service of the workers since June 2014.

They added, “But the management has been recalcitrant and unyielding, particularly on issues bordering on slave wage, casualisation and continued degeneration of the welfare and conditions of service of employees.

[Punch]

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