President of the United Labour Congress of Nigeria (ULC), Joe Ajaero, has warned that airport workers will lose about 90 percent of its workforce if the Federal Government succeeds in the proposed concession plan.
Ajaero gave the warning Monday during a protest organised by the leadership of the ULC and members of Association of Nigerian Aviation Professionals (ANAP) at the Murtala Mohammed Airport (MMA) Lagos, to express their displeasure towards the proposed concession plan of Abuja, Lagos, Port Harcourt and Kano airports.
Speaking at the rally, the ULC president warned the members of ANAP that they should not relent in their fight against the proposed airport concession by the government, emphasising that previous concession arrangements carried out in the power sector, Nigeria Railway Corporation and Nitel were not fruitful.
Ajaero, who said they had learnt their lessons, advised the workers to ensure that they disallow the plan or sit down and negotiate their conditions of service before the concession could take place.
“I came to ‘solidarise’ with all of you on this challenge again. This is another challenge on the working people of Nigeria. A challenge of concessioning, the challenge of privatisation, the challenge of management buy-back or POP, ROT or whatever name as may be proposed by the World Bank and IMF.
“If you have 500 workers now, after concession only 50 people will remain here. Even those 50 people will be casual appointments,” he said.
He said they should not rely on their pensions since pensioners in the country were suffering due to backlog of unpaid pension arrears.
