The industrial action that commenced at Airline Services Logistics (ASL) headquarters at the Murtala Muhammed Airport(MMA),Lagos, by its workers against the management has continued through the night spilling over to day today Saturday, as foreign airlines, who are ASL clients are lamenting the impact of the workers’ action.
This is just as the angry workers slept in the catering organisation’s premises to continue their industrial action
Sources say that these airlines are now looking towards the direction of other catering companies to supply them with in-flight cuisine.
ASL renders in- flight service to airline such as Emirates, British Airways, Delta Air Lines South African Airways, Lufthansa and Iberia.
Investigation revealed that these airlines were either not serviced yesterday, or had to turn down the catering due to what they term as ‘unhealthy’ with regards the unrest.
On Friday workers of ASL yesterday downed tools following the sack of the Chairman of the Union in ASL, Sule Muniru and the Quality Assurance Manager, Mr Abulimen Ehimien, for trying to negotiate for better welfare of the workers.
And despite the intervention of the National Union of Hotels and Personal Services Workers (NUHPW), the Assistant Commissioner of police, the new Managing Director of ASL, Laurent Moussard insisted that he would not reconsider his action.
On Friday, the workers slept in the premises of the catering giant and barricade the entrance forbidding anybody from either going out or coming in.
The workers’ grouse includes recall of their sacked colleagues, who they say have served for years only to be terminated without following due process for a simple reason as trying to negotiate workers welfare, they also alleged that the management as an agenda and is already on it by sacking people in batches for no reason and not paying them off.
A staff who spoke on the condition of anonymity , said, “ As we speak we have learnt that they have a list that they are working with and instead of outright sacking en-masse they are doing it in batches and claiming that the staff is redundant, this is not the only reason there are many more”.
The staff who pleaded anonymity told AbelNews that even the annual interest has been cancelled and so has promotion as most staff have been stagnated where they are for years. The source also said that they as staff have forfeited annual incentives
The Secretary of the internal union, Comrade Alex Oniku confirmed the development yesterday, stating that the workers decided to stop working because the management sacked the chairman of the union for demanding for improved welfare for the workers and Quality Assurance Manager of the company, Abulimen Ehimien.
He stated that action will continue until the MD withdrew the termination letters he gave to the affected staff, restate them so they can proceed on discussion.
According Oniku, “There is a crisis between the management and the union and the general workers in Lagos. Today, the management decided to terminate the appointment of the chairman of the union and we believe it is because of the crisis that is on or the collective bargaining that we have been doing with the management. We have been threatening to go to strike because of this, we have given the management and the management failed to look into the matter. And all these while the management has been going about threatening the staff.”
He continued, “The management has been monitoring the executive of the union .All these while we have been preaching peace to the management not to allow this to happen but unfortunately the management sacked the union chairman and a manager. We are fighting for a review of our condition of service, justice and incessant intimidation by the management.”
Airline Services & Logistics PLC (ASL) is a leading provider of catering and hospitality services to international airlines and airports in Nigeria. Since its inception, ASL has consistently delivered premium catering services to tier 1 corporate institution. Presently, ASL employs over 510 full time staff and caters to 600 flight handlings per month. ASL is now a listed company on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.