A strike by airport workers in Kenya caused flight delays for thousands of passengers

The strike by workers at Kenya’s main international airport (a country in East Africa) continued for a second day, causing flight delays on Monday and affecting thousands of passengers. Union representatives said that negotiations with the authorities over the workers’ demands were ongoing. Reuters reports, UNN writes.

Details

The strike at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport was caused by a number of unresolved issues, including the failure to conclude a collective agreement with the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority, as well as a lack of cooperation from the Kenya Airports Authority and Jambojet, a subsidiary of Kenya Airways.

On Sunday, the Kenya Airports Authority said that some flights were delayed, without specifying the reasons. On Monday, it did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. The Kenya Civil Aviation Authority and Jambojet also did not respond to inquiries.

Rwanda’s national carrier, RwandAir, said on the social media platform X on Sunday that it had canceled two flights due, it said, to air traffic control problems at Nairobi airport.

Passengers told Reuters that they had waited for hours at the airport for information about their flights.

"When I arrived, the flight had been moved to 1:00 a.m. So the delay was an hour and a half, and then it was moved again—to 4:30 a.m. At around three o’clock, I went to check in. I was told that the flight had been canceled," said Rabbi Mendel Goldman, who was traveling to a wedding in Florida.

"The earliest flight they can offer us is only tomorrow evening, so we will have to wait," Goldman said on Monday. "We’ll try to make use of this time somehow, but for now I’ve already been here at the airport for 12 hours."

KAWU Secretary General Moss Ndiema said that the union and government representatives had met on Sunday to resolve the issues, but no agreement was reached.

"We agreed to continue negotiations tomorrow, from 11 a.m. In the meantime, the strike is continuing," he said on KTN television on Sunday.

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