Workers of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) continued their strike on Thursday despite appeals by the minister and some of their leaders to call it off.
The workers said they would not call off the strike until their grievances had been met by the aviation authorities.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the workers had commenced the strike on Wednesday to press for the revision of the collapsed organogram, which would make many managers redundant.
The five directorates of NCAA being merged into one are: the Consumer Protection, Licensing Standards, General Aviation, Aero-medicals and Legal Services.
The workers are also demanding for the promotion of workers who had been long overdue.
The unions on strike are: the Air Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN) and the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE).
Others include : the Association of Nigerian Aviation Professionals (ANAP) and the National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE).
On Wednesday, the leaderships of the unions met with the Minister of State for Aviation, Sen. Hadi Sirika in Abuja, where the minister promised to look into the issues.
Sirika had also appealed to the labour leaders to suspend the strike because it had affected the operations of the NCAA, which is the regulator of the Nigerian aviation industry.
NAN however observed that on Thursday, the workers continued their blockade of the NCAA headquarters and rejected entreaties made by the President of ATSSSAN, Mr Ilitrus Ahmadu and other union leaders, to call off the strike.
Ahmadu told his colleagues to sheath the sword since the minister had promised to look into the issues before leaving office on May 28.
He said: “Let me assure you that the issue of the organogram is not what we can resolve on the table.
“We are looking for permanent solutions because it affects everybody and that is why we have come here to address you.
“If we continue this strike, that means the exercise in Abuja to resolve the issue will not take place.
“Our prayer was that the Federal Executive Council (FEC) should not be dissolved yesterday (Wednesday) and its life span had been extended to May 28.
“The minister assured us that the issues will be resolved within seven days but if we refuse to suspend the strike, the issues cannot be resolved,” Ahmadu said.
The workers, however, unanimously rejected the decision to suspend the strike, maintaining that it would only be called off when the issues raised had been addressed.
(NAN)