NAIROBI – Kenyan aviation workers have called off a strike that paralysed the country’s main international airport for two days, the civil aviation authority said yesterday.
Thousands of passengers were stranded in the capital Nairobi and at other airports around the east African country on Sunday and Monday as workers staged a go-slow protest.
It was the latest in a series of strikes and threatened shutdowns by aviation unions demanding a new collective bargaining agreement and an end to the use of volunteer staff.
The Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) said in a statement that an agreement had been reached to move forward negotiations on the bargaining agreement and the “non-victimisation of employees arising from the industrial action”.
Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) in Nairobi is a major regional hub and vital to Kenya’s tourism trade.
In a statement, Transport Minister Davis Chirchir said the government had brokered an agreement between the key parties, but added that “the quantified loss to the economy… has been huge”.
Kenya Aviation Workers Union (KAWU) secretary general Moss Ndiema told reporters that it was “effectively calling off our strike action” and that it would begin “normalising” operations.
National carrier Kenya Airways said in a statement it was working to restore operations, while warning that delays would continue until today.
– Nampa/AFP
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