GCAA workers suspend industrial strike after stakeholder engagement

Union Workers of the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) have now deferred their industrial strike over the alleged sale of aviation lands.

The development comes after the strike action nearly disrupted domestic flight operations as of October 14, 2020.

Spokesperson of the Union Workers Association, William Amoako speaking to Accra-based Starr FM said the workers are suspending their strike following assurances from their leadership after a meeting held today, October 15, 2020.

“We have suspended the strike effective immediately. We have been told to come for a meeting today and we believe that they will address the concerns after the meeting. If they don’t resolve it, we will resume the strike action,” Amoako said.

The workers had earlier threatened to withdraw essential services including Air Traffic Services in a bid to demand the return of the Authority’s lands.

They had also claimed the government has taken up a larger portion of these lands for other operations leaving room for a mere portion for them to operate.

Following the earlier strike action, the two main domestic airlines operators, Africa World Airlines (AWA) and Passion Air, all cancelled their Accra-Kumasi-Accra and Accra-Tamale-Accra flights after check-in due to the development.

Background

The land on which the La Wireless Station Aviation Training School in Accra is sited was leased by government on behalf of the GCAA from the La Traditional Council for a total of 99 years.

As at last year, there were 27 years left on the lease. The lease has since been renewed for an additional 63years but with portions of the land reverting back to the La Traditional Council.

Developers, backed by the Council, have since started redeveloping portions of the land. It is this activity that caused damage to some underground cables of various Air Navigation Service (ANS) installations. This threatens aviation safety in the Accra Flight Information Region (FIR).