 Welcome back. It's still the breakfast in Plastivya, Africa, and set for our first major conversation. Well, workers of the Nigerian aviation handling company PLC have called off their industrial strike, which they embarked upon in the early hours of Monday. This follows a communique signed by the management of a company and the unionist representatives, as well as regulatory agencies in which it was resolved that the workers call off the action and resume work immediately. Now, the management of NACO at the meeting held at the NACO Avion's house in Ikeja agreed to withdraw the suited file against the unions. The National Industrial Court, also the parties agreed that negotiations on staff welfare would resume on January 25 and be concluded within the week. It was also agreed that no member of staff would be victimized for participation in the strike. Hundreds of passengers yesterday, if you recall, had their travel plans disrupted. The international and local wings of the Motelamohamed Airport in Lagos on Monday, because of the striking back done by the staff of the Nigerian Aviation Handling Company PLC over salary increment issues. NACO workers were said to have walked out of the international airport in the early hours of Monday, leading to the cancellation and delay of several flights scheduled for the day, according to passengers affected by the development. What we have joining us this morning to discuss the impact of the strike on the aviation sector and the issues surrounding this strike, Mr. Wally Chadorie, who is the aviation editor of the new telegraph newspaper in Lagos. Wally, good morning to you. Thank you very much for your time. Good morning. Thank you very much. And please give us a better understanding of the issues behind this strike by workers of the National Aviation Handling Company. And who exactly are these workers? Are they the ones who handle the luggage? Thank you. Good morning, Mr. Wally. The news today was a very difficult one for fair travel in Nigeria, particularly for the Lagos airport in Motelamohamed International Airport. At earlier 6 o'clock, the passengers didn't know what awaited them. So we got to the airport and they are at 6, 5, 6 o'clock for their flight. Some of them were travelers going to do that, traveling to do that. And when we got to the airport and they were supposed to be checked in, the NACO workers told them that they were on strike and they chose the land. It was just everywhere because they couldn't go, they couldn't be checked in. And it took a very big toll, not only on the passengers, but we also took a toll on the immigration and value change. Because not only Qatar airways passengers are stranded, we also had a lot of people on one day, Delta, Virgin Appliances that we are trying to tell you. The claim is very chaotic situation yesterday. So what these NACO workers do primarily, we call them Grand Handling workers. What we do, we are the people who see that checking your luggage, you have to the airport, you want to travel, you're checking your luggage, you're checking your baggage, you give your boarding passes, you have to clean the aircraft, you have to make the luggage into the aircraft, even if you're traveling to the aircraft. So they have a lot of work to do and we tell them airlines, schedule passenger airlines can never, never take off. I think the NACO workers and their management are being at loggerheads so quite maybe one week too over salary, immigration, what people didn't know, people thought or the airlines thought that this matter had been resolved. Only for the workers to go and make good their choice yesterday, they came back on the track that cost a lot of this location in travel. I think literally the airline could have looked over three or four billion aircraft yesterday action on the strike action. So the good thing is that the matter was resolved after maybe after about four, five, six hours yesterday because we were working on and having to meet and push anything because it was necessary, you have to wait, you have to call, wait and see the matter to see if this was the mission of the matter. Eventually the strike was called off around four or three or four billion yesterday and I wouldn't call you no more because it took a while before my master can return. Most of the airlines have to be shared with their flight, most of the airlines are community and they have to navigate to neighboring countries like Ghana and other including Abidia. So that even an airline that was about landing because of the problem decided to go back to the destination, go back to the airline. So you can see the animals lost their last action because not only the airline not only the airline that they had because the entire industry it was very very thank god the whole mission had been done after a resolution that the management will have to include the package recorded that restraining the workers from the strike and ensure that no worker was victimized or victimized. So the matter has been resolved and it has to be. I'd like us to speak I mean you're saying that the matter has been resolved but we don't know for how long you know that will be until this workers you know stage another protest and so what do you make of the consent of these workers they talk about salary increase you know there's some other persons who've also you know talked about their consent saying I mean how can these persons not go home they don't have enough money you know to take them home after the close of work especially when you juxtapose that with the cost of you know transportation now and the couple with fuel scarcity I want you to speak to the demands and the consent of these workers do you think that you know is valid okay so hopefully we're able to be connected with our guests in no time but I mean it's a lot so yesterday following the conversation and monitoring all that's going on some people seem to be on the side of those workers and they say it's not a party a fair noun you know it's about an individual it's about a thing where those who should be looking out for the welfare of the people who have failed and then your other you know passengers to pay for XYZ say pay for cargo services and one of you but then you're not even able to take care of you know the welfare of the people and the issue of welfare will not be the first time we're talking about it it's it's actually ongoing in almost every sector of the economy salary increase you know lack of favorable environment for these workers to thrive and of course you know do what they ought to do or carry their jobs properly so it's quite unfortunate and and others have also alluded to the fact that it's just a an avenue for the people to down to because the president had visited and it's only protocol that if the president visits then you know all sort of oppression should you know be on stand seal to some extent but it costs you know the aviation sector a lot of money okay we're being told that we have our guests back now thank you so much for joining us again are you if you can hear me please unmute your device okay tell me now yes do you like me to repeat the question again absolutely so i'm asking what do you make of the concerns of the aviation workers i mean mostly it's about salary increase just to meet up with the you know current state of things in the economy uh some persons were also on the part of those workers yesterday whose flights were redirected especially cargo flight you know to other parts of the world and some of them you know were very empathic and they talked about the fact that those workers get to sleep in the office because they can't find their way home there's no money to take them back to the house and it's not a favorable condition for them so i like you to speak to it and also speak to the timing you know off this protest uh thank you very much like i was saying before the connection went up i i said just few weeks ago as our people have gone workers on the south napple were promoted and when you do this mass promotion it comes with a lot of energy to the workers you need to pay them their remuneration you need to increase their salaries you need to increase their allowances and you need to increase their allowances i didn't have the details of what they have grown but from what we are hearing we talked about salary for the management of macros have come up to say okay we have we had an agreement which they were going to because some of the things before they decided to do one strike but you can't afford some of their workers you know because they need to pay their workers they need to do whatever they can do to protect their workers i think there was a kind of a missing gap a commutation gap that actually led to these workers doing a strike realizing things coming nobody's coming because we thought that this issue should have been resolved before it's evolved into what we had to do yesterday so in the responsibility of the management to match their work with them to match their work with action and ensure that the workers are well taken care of what you have also realized in the aviation industry that we don't engage in it or the unions don't engage in it and i believe that most times the management lacks power to face to resolve some of the issues that need to be resolved and even the workers you know i use the last effort to strike to question their demands so um by and like i want to believe that this matter has been resolved this matter will not come out again but you never can tell in this country strike is usually the last effort to question any demand so we also hope that we will never encounter what we encountered yesterday because uh the problem is the problem is brought to the airline the problem is brought to the entire emission industry which even made the house of reference and took it to moving to the matter and before and to do the mission and before that the mission came yesterday before they called up that strike yesterday they had the mission here they had the resolution that all the workers demand to invest they have to pay as possible or the cost case that they they were restraining the workers from and backing on that strike should be participated and also to promise them that we know worker will be so which we which um for the action the truth is today i think that's the best thing to do uh of the doing the house sensitive the decision is up to okay well should i talk about how sensitive and sort of to direct their piece i talked about sensitive aviation industry is um um what do you say about the penchant for unions especially or including maybe let me say in the aviation sector turn back on such strike that um affect the the economy affect the ranking or the rating or the perception internationally of Nigeria reputation in aviation sector of Nigeria and affects investment foreign inflow of investment and affects foreign businesses in the country um uh what would you say about the penchant of these unions to embark on such strikes uh you know without much room for warning and room for you know uh people to get ready um to prepare be travelers be it uh uh you know the airlines be it those in the aviation sector government to prepare you know because what we see in other parts of the world is like in the UK for instance we give them some time we're going to go and so everyone gets ready and the the naco avian says that the uh this strike bothered it it somehow became economic sabotage they called it economic sabotage because apart from the fact that they just went on the strike without you know much time or room for preparation and warning there was also a court order so do you agree um that you know this this union sometimes do these things they they get out of out of hand they go extreme uh to extreme lengths yes thank you very much for that question yes i've always told people who are ready to meet them uh the type of thing and you know it hasn't been like the i'm sorry to use our life only kaja we don't decide the time for women you know to have to learn the rules and we embark on strikes we can't even consider the legal institution of the uh the actions that we take i've never supported the union in the way the short business especially if it's because you don't be able to keep making leadership and you just don't go on strike to pass propensity secondly that's right for the legal because the naco um as a company has procured or no i do not say procured but in junction the public workers it means the workers violated the contribution the order is training them from embarking on that strike which means is very very good so but you know the way we do things in this part of the world we do things in terms of looking at the consequences of our actions or what our actions in terms of business and society in general um before we can embark on strikes we must be a timeline yeah we must have even informed the airline and i'm very sure the airlines didn't have even ordered to be in their flights into Nigeria we didn't know that strike was going to be a problem because it has caused them an enormous loss already lost it it has caused them a lot of dislocation but so by and large i feel that um we will carry on in business we we're all doing in Nigeria we just did the union calling on a short degree they don't need to uh eminute you back up in relation services when you're setting the path to start giving the next one is anti-impact and strike i'm not saying they shouldn't back on strike i'm not saying they shouldn't set the interest of their work up but we must do things that portray or as uh the reason is the people are the people we shouldn't do things that if we are in banana and the public we should politically we should politically we engage enough with management before you call your mentor out on the strike even if you're going to call them out on strike you need to be in not most places you need to sensitize the airlines your customers and what um you're planning to do so that people plan to effect people can get ready for the work but yesterday i took sympathy on so many people who were oblivious of what was going to happen they came to the airport only for them to be okay so do you think that there should be a legal implication for this action i mean it's it's very irresponsible just like a lot of persons have described it should there be a legal implication any sort of consequence yes uh you also need to be very careful you only need to be very very sensitive you and you know our judicial system in my career that is very very smooth with that term cases my view also goes to one year three years three years five years even ten years so where does that lead me to the company that needs to provide services to the people and part of the resolution used to be part of the argument was like that matters we have to we do not back hit that matter because we have and twisted them knuckle and knuckle is same as the way of you know resolving the matter absolutely as possible because they also have their own names to say they are with the corporate uh integrity to say so uh consequently we have to jump in channel of the workers because the workers will be here the workers are holding the long long time to speak here who they need to resolve this are particularly because their clients do not ask you uh for uh why the reason yes we are the reason for them to cross the picture because at the same time your clients do not want to be hired up in the midst of what describes them they want services they want and some of them are even paid also so if you're not giving them the services that they require you may have to go to court to hold you and to ask for to press to press the damages and where does that lead you have to come to me so i believe that they have the right yeah like i said uh action okay okay because of time i since i apologize because of time very quickly very quickly please very quickly in a sentence or two there are very few countries in the world who have an entire ministry uh dedicated to aviation in Nigeria we have a whole ministry for aviation which is a novel you know um uh why would we have a ministry uh for aviation and then we usually see that uh issues that can be addressed you know some of these little things are not taken up by the ministry of aviation to solve so it doesn't escalate to this level very briefly please yes there's nothing the ministry could have done in this matter is an issue involving a company and it's a worker so it's an example of them that have nothing to do with the ministry of uh what the federal government do truly has to do with and i'm sure also the ministry of aviation would have to build on workers to go back to work for them to email you to get to Nigeria that policy it has nothing to do with Nigeria um we've seen in the central airline the same big operation initially a pilot you know this time we saw Kenya Airways pilot down two um and that caused a lot of problems it's been nothing new we've seen uh it was in the advanced line okay so there's nothing new only that you need to be very careful because we are sitting on the economy that we very very i don't do anything to confirm that all right thank you very much thank you very much a woody a shuddery who is the aviation editor of a new telegravity troopers very very informed analysis and we look forward to having you again on the program soon thank you all right all right well uh still ahead on the program we have more discussions mercy definitely when we return we'll be looking at the possibility of buying petrol at 800 naira per litre uh that's if you know you have a petrol subsidy been removed please stay with us