By DANIEL ETEGHE

LAGOS— MORE than one hundred of Aero Contractors’ passengers were, yesterday, stranded at the Domestic Wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, MMA2, as officials of the Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, ATSSSAN,  and the National Union of Air Transport Employees, NUATE, grounded all flight operations of the airline for alleged insensitivity to staff welfare  and anti-union activities.

The unions had earlier given the management of the Airline a 21-day ultimatum to sack the Director of Human Resources and Corporate Services, over what they described as anti-union activities or face industrial action, threatening that if no action was taken by the management, both the unions and workers of Aero Contractors would down tools from March 13, 2013.

Vanguard was at the Murtala Muhammed Airport Domestic Terminal 2, MMA2, and gathered that the stranded passengers were left at the departure hall of the airport’s terminal without being attended to by the airline’s officials as they could no longer catch their flights to their various destinations due to the industrial action embarked upon by both the unions and the workers.

According to a statement signed by both unions, management of Aero Contractors had commenced alleged attacks on the unions by formally writing a petition to the Commissioner of Police, Airport Command under the title “Threat to lives and breach of Security” where the Management alleged that all the unions leaders were terrorists and were planning to bomb aircraft and unleash violence on the travelling publics.

The Unions noted that the management also instituted a case against them before the National Industrial Court, restraining the unions from embarking on strike on the said March 13, 2013.

They, however, emphasized that no court could force the workers to work when the workplace was unconducive to work in, stressing that the workers could not be working while the management takes pleasure in eating up their sweat.

The unions, however, stressed that they would not compromise until the demands of the striking workers were acceded to by the management of Aero Contractors Airlines.

The situation latter took a twist as most of the stranded passengers took a protest to the headquarters of Aero Contractors, threatening to institute a class action against the airline in the court of law.

Reacting to the plight of the passengers, the management of Aero Contractors in a statement said: “Aero Management wishes to apologise for the inconvenience suffered by our highly esteemed customers due to an abrupt industrial action by our staff which has led to grounding of all our scheduled operations.

“We are engaging with the unions to find a quick and amicable resolution. Further details will be given in due course.”