The National Union of Air Transport Employees on Tuesday continued the picketing of two in-flight catering companies at the Lagos airport for allegedly preventing their employees from joining unions in the aviation industry.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the unions had on Monday began the picketing of in-flight service providers – Newrest Aviation Services Ltd. and Pan African Catering Services FZE.
The union members as well as some of the firms’ employees had at the early hours of Tuesday barricaded the entrances to their offices and grounded all their operations.
They carried placards with different inscriptions such as “Section 40 of the Nigerian constitution must be obeyed; “workers have right to the union of their choice’’, and “Six union executives of Newrest ASL must return back to work”.
The protesters demanded the immediate reinstatement of some of their colleagues who were sacked by the Newsrest ASL management for championing their rights.
The Secretary, Lagos State Chapter, NUATE, Anthony Ijeh, told NAN that the picketing of both organisations was due to anti-labour practises of their management.
He said: “The main issue started when the workers here declared their intention to join NUATE.
“However, the management objected to it because they already belonged to a union known as National Union of Hotel and Personnel Services.
“This is an aviation industry, so the company does not expect workers in the aviation industry to be unionised by an outsider.
“The union outside this industry doesn’t know the terms and conditions of service in aviation.
“The workers, therefore, opted out massively from their former union to join NUATE which the management kicked against.
“This tells you a story because when has it become the management’s business to decide for workers the union they will belong to?’’
Ijeh noted that the union made several efforts to resolve the issue amicably with the Newrest ASL management but could not make any progress.
He recalled that in February 2018, the union had engaged in a four-day picketing of the company after the move to resolve staff victimisation was not successful.
Ijeh noted that after the four days of picketing, the company took the union to the National Industrial Court, Lagos, saying that both parties were still in court.
According to him, the union has not received any court order restraining the picketing of the firm’s operations.
He, therefore, urged the companies to recall its sacked members and also allow the employees belong to any union of their choice.
Ijeh said this would lead to the suspension of the picketing exercise and restore peace and stability to their operations.
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