Kotoka Airport porters appeal to Prez Kufuor for help

Over a hundred porters of the Kotoko International Airport (KIA) have appealed to President J.A. Kufuor to intervene on their behalf and save their families from starvation.

According to them, their only livelihood is the tip they get at the Airport, which pay for their children’s school fees, care for them and their wives as well as their aged parents.

Speaking to the Ghana Palaver at the Airport last Wednesday, a spokesman for the group said, as porters at the Airport, they are not on the payroll of the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) but rather they pay four million cedis to the Authority every month by weekly installments of one million cedis.

They said before they were employed, they paid between ?350,000 to ?500,000 to the Porters Association for their uniforms and Identity cards. They also paid ?50,000 each for their vetting by the police Administration. The 180 porters who were vetted by the Police are yet to receive their results.

The Porters were therefore surprised that a time that the NPP government is promising to create more job for the unemployed, the management of GCAA, together with the board, have decided to terminate the appointment of over 105 porters. According to them, only 75 out of 180 porters have been asked to take pictures for a new ID cards, which means that 105 of them will lose their jobs.

The frustrated porters said a letter signed by the Acting Deputy Director-General, Mr F.A. Nii Adumansa-Baddoo, and copied to the Director of Airports Management and the Director of Aviation Security, is a misdemeanour because they work directly under the two directors and if anything they should have written those letters.

They contended that considering the volume of work at the arrival hall of the airport, to allow only five porters into the Arrival Hall, especially, during peak flight seasons is wrong and untenable. For instance, they said, on flight schedules when all the bigger Airlines arrive, it will be difficult for only five porters to handle the baggage of more than 600 passengers, with some old and sick.

The Porters denied an allegation that junior porters collaborated with CEPS officials on duty or Ghana Airways officials on excess baggage and even assist in the smuggling of goods. The affected Porters find the reasons for their dismissals by GCAA management as ridiculous saying “Customs officials have their preventive officers at the gate, with Ghana Airways also having their security officials responsible for passengers bags.” In such a situation, it will only take a network of officials to agree to smuggle and not a poor group of individual porters.

They also explained that all porters on duty have identity cards with their name tags on while on duty and challenged GCAA management to point out a single porter caught involved in any wrongdoing who has not been dealt with. The Porters are therefore appealing to the good office of President Kufuor to save them from this unfortunate plight, since according to them, they campaigned and voted for positive change and will be so disappointed to loose their job under their own government.