Massive security at Lagos Airport as unions attempt to picket airlines

    

  

   Heavy security has deployed to the Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMA), Lagos after a threat by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and aviation unions to disrupt the operations of some airlines over alleged casualisation of staff and refusal of the airlines to recognize unions.

    The General Aviation Terminal (GAT) of MMA where Air Peace and Arik Air operates was massively flooded with security personnel including members of the Nigeria Police, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and Aviation Security (AVSEC). It was learnt that the heavy security presence was to prevent the unions from disrupting activities of airlines amidst threat of picketing. The unions had in commemoration of the International Labour Organization (ILO) 2017 World Day For Decent Work vowed to picket four airlines including Air Peace, Med-View, Azman Air and First Nation.

  

    However, Air Peace had cautioned the unions against disrupting its operations, warning that it would not watch and allow the unions carrying out the threat. It was gathered that many of the security agencies which were drafted from outside the aviation industry were brought in to forestall a breakdown of law and order. NSCDC officials manned the entrance of the GAT terminal while officials of Nigeria Police with their Hilux vehicles manned the surrounds. Following the heavy security presence, there was no disruption to flight operations of any of the airlines targeted to be shut down.

  

   The unions which condemned the heavy security mobilization however said the exercise was not to disrupt the operations of any airline but to sensitize workers on their rights to unionize.  General Secretary of the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), Olayinka Abioye,  expressed dismay over the deployment of security outside the airport command of the Police. “I want to believe that Air Peace has some skeletons in its cupboard because there is no reason why extra security should be added to what the Airport Command has and we have been saying this, it is inappropriate and unnecessary for an employer of labour in our sector to take the step the airline has taken,” he said.

    He, however, said that the presence of the security operatives would not deter the unions from carrying out its sensitisation exercise of the workers of the airlines, stressing that NLC and the House of Representatives were already making enquiries about organisations that refused to allow its staff to join any of the unions or still engages in casualisation of workers. “We have complied with that directive, we have supplied names and I tell you before the end of November a lot of things will happen here,” he said.