NAIROBI (Reuters) – The biggest union of Kenya’s aviation workers has postponed for two weeks a planned strike that was scheduled to start on Monday, to allow talks with the government over a proposed deal with an Indian company to develop the country’s main airport.
The union, which represents airport workers, opposes the proposed agreement announced last month with India’s Adani Airport Holdings which it says will cause job losses and bring in non-Kenyan workers.
“The Union has decided to postpone the strike notice, since we are going into discussions,” the union’s secretary general Moss Ndiema said on Sunday, adding negotiations would be with the state-run airports authority and the transport ministry.
“If the meeting fails to reach any agreement, the union will issue fresh strike notice for its members.”
The airport is a major regional aviation hub and a strike would cause significant disruption to the region’s air traffic.
The government has said the airport is not for sale and that no decision had been made on whether to proceed with what it called a proposed public-private partnership with the Adani company to upgrade the hub.
The airports authority has said Adani plans to add a second runway at the Jomo Kenyatta international airport and upgrade the passenger terminal if its proposal is approved.
According to the Kenyan government, the airport is stretched beyond its capacity of 7.5 million passengers a year and is in urgent need of improvements, projected to cost $2 billion.
(Reporting by Humphrey Malalo; Writing by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
