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Kenya is facing a tidal wave of strikes as teachers, university lecturers and the workers of Kenya Airways are set to go on strike beginning this week to press for pay increases and the recognition of their rights.
About 1,500 national airline workers were expected to stage a strike on Friday to press for the recognition of their union, the Aviation and Allied Workers Union (AAWU), which said all efforts to have the airline management begin official working relations with them had flopped.
"We are trying to influence the management to realize that workers rights. The workers are not asking for salaries, they are asking for the recognition of their union," said AAWU General Secretary Jimmy Masege at a Sunday news conference.
Kenya Airways workers are protesting the plans by the airline to fire several local cabin crew and other ground workers, including engineers in preference for foreign staff, which the union said was a mockery of the efforts by the poorly-paid workers to resuscitate the airline.
The duel between the airline and its workers started in May when the airline refused to recognize AAWU to represent the majority of workers, saying it was already working with the Transport and Allied Workers Union.
Meanwhile, the Universities Academic Staff Union (UASU) representing university dons in Kenya said Sunday that its slated strike on October 23 was still set until the Kenyan government tables an acceptable pay rise package.
"We decided to call a strike because the government did not show seriousness in the negotiations we were holding," UASU Chairman Sammy Kusabu told journalists in Nairobi.
The Union representing the country's nearly 300,000 teachers has also said they would call a strike to protest against the government's failure to implement a 1997 pay hike which promised a 200-500 percent raise in a five-year period.
Workers Unions say the wave of strike pending this week is due to the failure of the Labor Ministry to mediate strike and disagreements between workers and employers.
"The government has failed to take steps when strike notices are issued," Masege told journalists in Nairobi on Sunday.
He said air travelers should make necessary adjustments to their travel itinerary to avoid disappointment.
(Xinhua News Agency October 16, 2006)
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