To forestall imminent loss of jobs owing to dwindling fortune of the company, workers of Aero Contractors have protested against alleged mismanagement of the airline by the Board of Directors of Asset Management Company of Nigeria.
The workers, led on the peaceful demonstration by President of Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, Mr. Benjamin Okewu, and the General Secretary, National Union of Air Transport Employees, Mr. Olayinka Abioye, expressed displeasure at the alleged poor management style by the board.
They called for the dissolution of the board and a replacement with professionals with the wherewithal to run an airline successfully.
The workers, numbering over 800, marched around the premises of the airline at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos, singing solidarity songs and carrying placards displaying messages of their grievances
They particularly decried the refusal of the board to review the over eight-year-old company organogram, which they insisted had outlived its usefulness.
Since taking over the airline’s debts owed some Nigerian banks, AMCON has been controlling 60 per cent stake in the company.
Speaking with journalists, Okewu stated that the protest was necessitated by the fact that the over 1,000 workers of the airline might soon be thrown into the job market if the mismanagement failed to change its style.
He noted the multiplier effects of the airline collapsing would be immense because of their dependants.
“The new structure of Aero, which has been prepared, should be signed and implemented. Otherwise, the management should resign. Some of the funny things that cannot happen in the public sector are happening at Aero,” he added.
Abioye said the management of the airline had been taking the unions for granted and that while the management and the board were allegedly benefiting from the airline, the workers were not taken care of.
On his part, the Chairman of ATSSSAN, Aero Chapter, Emakpo Ayo-Ife, stated that what workers were asking for was a review of the structure put in place eight years ago.
“AMCON invested about N10bn in this company throughout the period that it has been here. When it came in 2011, we had 11 aircraft and now we are down to five aircraft,” he said.
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