BY Mercy Odeh (Content Editor)

LAGOS, NIGERIA  — Again, one of the unions in the aviation sector has stressed that the right to unionise, or to be a  member of  a union, doesn not rest on the employer but as a matter of choice. 

Comrade John Ogbe,  National President of Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN), said this while reacting to the accusation by the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) that union truncated the smooth payment arrangement with agencies regarding 5 per cent Ticket Sales Charges (TSC).

The AON had alleged that the unions truncated airlines remittance system to the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) at the 30th edition of the League of Airport and Aviation Correspondents (LAAC) in Lagos. 

“And as unions, we don’t have the right to compel anybody to join trade unions. Trade unions date back to 1900 in the aviation industry” 

“​So, for someone to say “because of global best practices,” it’s completely wrong. So, I find it very strange. But that’s to show there’s a lot of knowledge gap.

“If as an investor, you are bringing your money into a sensitive environment like aviation, and one of the key components in the factor of production is labor, and you don’t recognize labor, you’re more like throwing money into the drain,” Ogbe said.

​Ogbe remarked that airlines does not just fly an aircraft from one point to another without following rules adding that air traffic controllers are union members that give clearance for airlines to fly. 

The ATSSSAN boss explained that in aviation, they are one family and partners adding that they are aware of the financial burden that airlines go through which had made it for them as unions to intervene on behalf of the airlines

“So, I want to say that aviation unions, we are social partners. We are in it together.

“We understand the financial burden that airlines go through and all of that. And several times, we have intervened on behalf of airlines.

“Not just fighting for our members. We wrote to the Federal Government to give tax waivers on imported items and spare parts for airlines.

“When airline had issues, when the fares went up by the airliners, we wrote to the President and requested tax cuts to help airlines recover. During COVID-19, we wrote that airlines should be given intervention” Ogbe maintained 

According to ATSSSAN president, unions interventions have helped the airlines, stressing that the survival of the airlines remained the success of unions

​”So, we are not here to fight or to truncate the business. And that’s what we are saying: give us access to members to join or not to join.

“You cannot compel it. And this right is given in the Constitution of the Federal Republic, it’s given in the Trade Unions Act, it’s given in the ILO Conventions that Nigeria is a signatory to,” he said.