The National Union of Air Transport Employees in Port Harcourt have embarked on a protest against the Federal Government’s move to concession four international airports in Nigeria.
The unionists who staged a peaceful protest at the Port Harcourt International Airport on Tuesday stated that the move of the government if allowed would spell doom for Nigerian airports.
This is as aviation workers in Lagos, Abuja and Kano earlier embarked on a protest against the Federal Government plan to concession major airports in the country.
The aviation workers also kicked against the government directive to return all staff that retired from 1st April 2014 to PenCom.
The National Vice President, National Union of Air Transport Employees, Njeri Emmanuel, who spoke on behalf of the protesting workers expressed sadness over the development and demanded that the government tackle labour issues before proceeding.
He said, “We are here to say no to the Federal Government’s stand on concession of the four major airports in this country.
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“Concession of the four major airports has implications. It will put the Nigerian state and workers into chaos and we don’t want what happened in NITEL, NPA, Nigerian Airways and others to happen to us.
“So we swung into action and came up with an action plan to have a meeting with the Federal Government in respect of that and told them that we want to be part of their planning.”
The Federal Government has expressed readiness to give out terminal building, toll Gates to private operators in a public-private enterprise.
The Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, also confirming the government’s move, disclosed that he had received an outline business case certificate of compliance from ICRC for the concession of the four airports.
