The National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE) on Monday said it would soon picket offices of airlines across the country that had disallowed their staff from joining trade unions.

The National President of NUATE, Mr Ben Nnabue, made the disclosure during the National Campaign for the Unionisation of Private Domestic Airlines in Nigeria during the week in Lagos.

Nnabue told the workers that the union had received the backing of the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) based in London on unionisation.

According to him, it is against labour law for some airlines to make employment conditioned upon not joining a trade union,

He said that those who threatened workers with sack if they joined unions were acting contrary to Nigerian laws.

Nnabue recalled that participants at the last global labour unions conference held in Singapore observed that a lot of organisations were not unionised.

He said that this was what informed the mandate to ensure that slave labour was eliminated on the African continent.

“In Nigeria, we have come to terms with the reality that the majority of our domestic airlines do not want their workers to join unions.

“While some have allowed their staff to unionise, other airlines, at the point of entrance, warn their staff against joining any trade union of their choice.

“We have been doing this for the past five years. We have reported to the ministers of labour and that of aviation.

“All of them have been promising us that something will be done, but you can’t be following up a project for five years; it means that they don’t want to do anything,” he said.

The union leader said that the international body in London was in support of their fight for unionisation.

“They also sent their regional Secretary, Comrade Itsafianu to come and monitor the process and also Comrade Dayo was sent from London to come see what we are doing about it.

“That shows how serious the global body views the decisions of our airlines not to allow their workers to join the trade unions.”

He warned that this was the last olive branch to be extended to them, saying that the next time, they would have to use what the laws allow them to use.

“We will picket them, but we have to exhaust all the channels of dialogue first, then we are at liberty to use the last resort, which is to picket those organisations,” he said.

The NUATE General Secretary, Mr Ocheme Aba, affirmed that it would be in the interest of airlines and organisations in the aviation sector to allow their workers to join the labour unions.

He said that no airline that had allowed its staff to join trade unions ever went under, apart from Nigeria Airways that was deliberately run down.

All the airlines that have gone under in the country were not unionised.

“An airline worker that is unionised, that has the backing of the union does not cut corners, they do not take orders from the owners to cut corners.

“They work according to the rules because if you give them a query, they will answer the query and if the company will carry out any action there is usually fair hearing, so they are protected.

“Those airlines that folded up are the ones that did not have any organised structure, no organised maintenance structure, no workforce structure, no director of administration, everything is one person in one office.

“That is why many of these people do not want unions, because they want to do things as they like.

“We must also understand that a worker who does not have negotiated terms of employment is just a paid slave,” he said.

Members of the union carried placards bearing inscriptions such as: ‘To belong to a trade union is a right, no negotiation;’ ‘The worker needs trade union protection,’ among others.

The Minister of Steel Development, Mr Shuaib Abubakar, says Nigeria spends $8 billion to import steel into the country annually, saying it has become necessary for the Ajaokuta steel company to work.

The minister disclosed this during an interactive session with the House of Representatives Committee on Steel Development in Abuja on Thursday.

According to him, the revival of Ajaokuta steel will cost money, and we have written a 10-year document for the revival. We will present the document to Mr President.

Abubakar said that it was in his own interest for Ajaokuta Steel to work, adding that he was from Kogi State and must push for such interest.

He said that the Federal Government paid $500 million dollars to terminate the concession agreement with Ajaokuta, adding that the ministry was working very hard to find a solution for Ajaokuta Steel.

“It is a problem that has persisted for 45 years. We have gone to China to come and invest in the steel company, including setting up a new plant, and we have gone to seek financing.”

He said that the challenges had changed as new technology had come up, and with innovation and discussion around it, but it had not been finalised.

“Funding is a big challenge to the ministry of steel development. The steel industry will be the bedrock of industrialisation if we have proper funding.

“I am still at a stage where I need to find a solution for the Ajaokuta steel company.”

On the $2 billion being requested to receive the Moribund steel company, the minister said it was just a preliminary calculation, adding that the figure might not be up to that.

According to him, this is an estimate that may not be accurate at the last decimal point. It is just a process that will allow us to arrive at the right destination.

“The president has asked me to find a solution to Ajaokuta, so the figure will change pending the outcome of the technical audit.

“It’s clear to Nigeria that for this to happen, we need funding and all the help we can get from the two chambers; this is why we need it. I need all your support to make this a reality.”

The Chairman of the House Committee on Steel Development, Rep. Zainab Gimba, urged the ministry to provide it with all the procurement processes and other responses demanded by the committee.

The committee said that Ajaokuta had remained a nightmare to many, adding that now that the minister had accepted to supervise it, Nigeria expected more from him.

By Jeleel Olawale

The Special Taskforce set up by the Osun State Government to monitor the Petroleum Scarcity has raided filling stations in Osogbo, the State capital.

The Taskforce which has the Chief of Staff to the Governor, Alhaji Kazeem Akinleye as the chairman, went round filling stations in Osogbo, Ifon, Ilobu today to ensure that marketers do not hoard the products while people suffer from petrol scarcity.

The Taskforce team which consists of Commissioner for Government House and Protocol, Honourable Soji Ajeigbe, Commissioner for Youths, Hon. Moshood Olagunju has two Special Advisers to the Governor, Hon. Babatunde Badmus and Alhaji Nurudeen Emiloju, among others.

At Muhy International Investment filling station at Ayekale, the committee ordered the manager to start dispensing as it was discovered to be hoarding about 800 litres in its PMS tank.

Addressing the petrol marketers and members of the public waiting to buy Petrol products, Hon. Soji Ajeigbe appreciated the managers of the filling stations that were seen dispensing the products.

According to him, the Taskforce was not out to shut down or witch-hunt any petroleum marketer but to ensure that any station found hoarding the product started dispensing the products immediately to the members of the public.

The team also took time to address members of the public on the need to be orderly and law-abiding, assuring that the state government is doing everything possible to facilitate more allocation of PMS to the state from the depots in Lagos and Port Harcourt.

Members of the public who were happy at the activities of the Taskforce were full of appreciation for the state government for being responsive to the public cries.

It was carnival-like from Agunbelewo where okada riders started following the taskforce from one filling station to another as those who were not selling before started dispensing the products ahead of the task force’s visit to their stations

The Taskforce inspected PMS tanks of the stations that were not dispensing the products to ascertain that they were not hoarding the product.

Parts of the stations visited include Major and Independent marketers as well as NNPC retail stations in Osogbo, Olorunda, Irepodun and Orolu local Governments.

Members of the Taskforce include Honourable Niyi Olaniyan, S A policy Coordination, and security agents.