LAGOS ( HRNW) – Nigerian aviation employees on Monday blocked roads to the domestic terminal of Lagos airport, slowing traffic and threatening to delay flights as they began a two-day strike in protest over working conditions and wages.
The strike is likely to add to problems in a sector that regularly faces jet fuel shortages, which often ground local flights and where international carriers struggle to repatriate revenue from ticket sales due to a shortage of foreign currency.
In the commercial capital Lagos, chanting workers blocked roads to the domestic terminal, creating a traffic jam and forcing passengers to finish their journey on foot. International flights were not affected.
Police and army personnel watched from a distance.
“It is time for us to release aviation workers from the bondage of this imperialist aviation management that we have been having for years,” Abdulrasaq Saidu, secretary general of the Association of Nigerian Aviation Professionals said.
Unions representing pilots, engineers, control tower operators and other airport workers say they are protesting against unpaid wages, the failure of the government to implement a minimum wage for the industry and plans to demolish the Lagos offices of some aviation agencies to allow expansion of the airport.