Strike: Workers ground activities at Kano airport over minimum wage

Operations at the Malam Aminu Kano International Airport came to a standstill for hours on Wednesday as protesting workers of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) disrupted activities in response to the federal government’s failure to implement the new minimum wage.

Led by members of the Amalgamated Union of Public Corporation, Civil Service Technical and Recreational Employees, the aggrieved workers stormed the NiMet office at the airport, locking out staff and causing major delays and cancellations of scheduled flights.

A source at the airport confirmed that the protest created significant disruptions, as union members forcefully removed NiMet personnel from their offices and reportedly locked in the Kano office manager, who declined to vacate the premises in protest.

“As you know flights are determined by weather and NiMet is the one providing weather information to pilot. So, even though some flight operations are still going on but the protest has affected many flights,” the source said.

Timothy Meshelia, the Northwest Zonal Chairman of the Amalgamated Union of Public Corporations, Civil Service Technical and Recreational Employees, also confirmed that the protest disrupted several flights at the airport on Wednesday.

“The protesting staff are accusing the management of NiMet of failing to implement the N30,000 and N70,000 minimum wage, non-payment of staff allowances, ignoring requests to include omitted staff in past payments, and neglecting key training programs, among other issues.

“The association has given the management one month to implement the new minimum wage or face industrial action,” he stated.

As of the time of filing this report, MAKIA officials had yet to make any official statement about the development, but it was gathered that normalcy and activities had since been restored in the airport.

(Vanguard)