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In Senegal, an extraordinary session of the Asecna committee of ministers opened on Monday, October 17 in Dakar, headquarters of the Agency for Air Navigation Safety in Africa and Madagascar, which brings together 17 countries on the continent. A meeting to try to get out of the showdown with several unions of air traffic controllers. A strike on September 23 and 24 caused major disruptions in the African skies. The demands of the inter-union relate in particular to the increase in the control bonus, or the career plan of the controllers. The strike had been “suspended”, but the crisis remains to be resolved.
With our correspondent in Dakar, Charlotte Idrac
The headquarters of Asecna was packed yesterday. After a previous extraordinary session by videoconference in August, the ministers in charge of air transport from the member countries, or their representatives, made the trip.
The strike launched by some of the air traffic controllers “ is an existential question for Asecna », « a major concern acknowledged the Niger Minister of Transport, current chairman of the agency’s Committee of Ministers. “ The disruptions that occurred were likely to dangerously compromise safety in our airspace “said Oumarou Malam Alma, who called for the return of the” social serenity ».
Before this meeting, the Union of Air Traffic Controllers Unions of Asecna at the origin of the discontent had launched an appeal to the Committee of Ministers, “ the only ones able today to find a solution, faced with the lack of will displayed by the general manager of the agency had affirmed its manager François-Paul Gomis, Friday in Dakar. If a solution is not found, the 730 member controllers of the intersyndicale will consult once more on the follow-up to be given to the strike notice, according to him.
