ATSSSAN wants airlines to review concession agreements
By Chika Ezeeokoli
TO compete favourably with its counterparts across the globe, the nation's aviation industry has been urged to review all concession agreements it entered with various concessionaires in the sector.
The National President, Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN), Mr. Benjamin Okewu, who spoke at the secretariat of the association in Lagos recently said that the various concessionaire agreements entered into by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and various concessionares in the industry did not measure up to international standard.
He added that that had been the cause of the various disagreements between the federal, state, ministry and parastatals in the industry.
He said that the growth in the aviation industry was stunted by greedy elements within and outside the industry, whose stock in trade had always been to masquerade as friends of government to spun lies in order to misinform the government.
According to him: "We have stated before and we want to re-state again that the union is not against concessioning. The various concessionaires that we have today especially in Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria do not meet international standard. And that is why there are so many lacunas that are causing a lot of disagreement among the federal, the state, ministry and parastatals.
His words: "To be specific is that of the Build Operate and Transfer (BOT) of Murtala Mohammed Terminal 2(MMA2), PAN Express and a lot others regarding the car park in international and even the VIP lounge at Abuja airport."
While commending the present minister for the reforms within the aviation industry, Okewu said: "We implore the Ministry of Aviation and its parastatals to invoke all the check list as clearly stated in the guidelines by involving the unions at all levels of action by securing our confidence and the whittling down areas of differences."
On the proposed new charges to be paid by aviation workers at the access gate, which was released by the concessionire handling the contract recently, he said that it would be ridiculous for anyone to ask workers who are daily working in the airport environment to pay charges for using the gate. He added that the union was only told by management of FAAN to pay for the microchip that granted access to cars on passing the tollgate.
On the efforts of the industry unions to involve key airlines in the unionisation of their members, Okewu said that the unions would not relent on their oars until every aviation worker was fully unionised.
He, however, stated that the unions would not hesitate to picket airliners, which prevented their members from joining the unions, adding that workers' interest could only be well protected when they belong to a union.
"We took that case to the Federal Ministry of Labour and we made presentations on all the various attempts we have made to unionise them. The case is already with the two labour centres, NLC and TUC. We are waiting for NLC and TUC to give them a day for picketing of all the airlines."
