Aviation Sector Braces for Strike as Workers Reject 50% Revenue Cut

Nigerians may soon face flight disruptions as aviation workers have declared a nationwide strike for August 21, 2024, to protest the Federal Government’s ongoing 50% deduction from key aviation agencies’ internally generated revenue. In a letter titled “Save Aviation From Collapse,” dated August 14, 2024, and released to the press on August 15, the unions announced their plans. The strike will impact several aviation agencies, including the NCAA, FAAN, NAMA, NiMet, NCAT, and NSIB, potentially crippling the sector’s operations.

The letter in part reads;

“All workers of the NCAA, FAAN, NAMA, NiMet, NCAT, and NSIB, joined by the solidarity of all aviation workers, are hereby directed to embark on peaceful protests at all airports nationwide on Wednesday, August 21, 2024, to demand the discontinuation of deduction of 50 per cent from the internally generated revenue of the agencies mentioned above through exemption.

All efforts on our part have failed to impress upon the Federal Government that all the agencies are cost recovery and not profit-making organisations. As such they cannot survive on half of their incomes under any model of administration or any other guise whatsoever,”

The unions sounded the alarm that essential safety operations within these agencies are already being jeopardized due to the financial hardship caused by the deductions. They emphasized that they will not be liable if the aviation industry grinds to a halt due to these financial limitations.

“Information available to us indicates that some important safety critical activities of the agencies are grinding to a halt under the yoke of the deductions.

It has therefore become incumbent on us as trade unions and workers in aviation to let the public and the government be aware that we shall bear no responsibility in the certain event that the industry becomes dysfunctional as a result of financial incapacity due to the deductions at source,” the union said

The unions have issued a directive to all their state chapters, women’s wings, youth organizations, and local branches nationwide to fully activate their members and achieve complete adherence to the strike action.