Kenya Airways Faces ‘Paralyzing’ Strike Over Wages (Update1) Share | Email | Print | A A A
By Sarah McGregor
Aug. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Workers at Kenya Airways Ltd., sub- Saharan Africa’s third-biggest airline, said they will begin a strike over pay aimed at “paralyzing” the carrier’s services.
About 3,500 engineers, check-in staff, clerical workers and baggage handlers plan to stop work at midnight local time and stage peaceful demonstrations outside Kenya’s airports, Jimi Masege, general secretary of the Aviation and Allied Workers Union, said in an interview today from Nairobi, the capital.
“We are trying to paralyze all the flights for Kenya Airways,” he said. “Without us, flights cannot take off.”
The labor union is demanding a 130 percent increase in salaries as well as subsidies for meals, transport and housing. Management has offered to raise wages by 8 percent and cover all “fixed” allowances over the next two years. Annual inflation in Kenya was 17.8 percent in July, unchanged from the previous month, the National Bureau of Statistics said on July 31.
Kenya Airways is continuing talks with the labor union in a bid to avert the strike, though it expects to “continue business” should the stoppage go ahead, Dick Omondi, a spokesman for the company, said in a phone interview from Nairobi today.
“We have a plan that will ensure continuity,” Omondi said, without elaborating. “Our interest is not to have a disruption and to reach an amicable solution.”
Kenya’s Industrial Court on Aug. 10 issued a “temporary stay” order prohibiting the planned strike and scheduled a follow-up hearing for Aug. 17.
South African Airways and Ethiopian Airlines Corp. are sub- Saharan Africa’s biggest airlines by passenger numbers, according to the International Air Transport Association.
Kenya Airways stock rose 0.25 shillings, or 1 percent, to 25 shillings on the Nairobi Stock Exchange as of 12:45 p.m. local time today.
To contact the reporter on this story: Sarah McGregor in Nairobi at
[email protected].
Last Updated: August 13, 2009 06:20 EDT