Prevention or Reaction? - Dealing with Industrial Actions (KQ employees strike)

The Kenya Airways strike, Njoroge Kimani says, was a betrayal of the country in its hour of need. “I can’t imagine trade unionists could have done this. I’ve no sympathy for them at a time when the country is going through such a difficult time. This amounts to sabotaging an economy that is down on its knees. I wouldn’t even imagine asking for a pay rise at the moment. Let’s be patriotic to get the economy out of the doldrums,” he says. 


Also upset about the strike that has cost the national carrier millions, Anthony Kiragu is more inclined to see an invisible hand behind it. Says he: “One should be forgiven for thinking that the strike was hatched to ensure the impending inaugural Nairobi-Gaborone flight didn’t take place. The workers should have appreciated the country’s daunting economic problems and postponed it.”


But rallying to the workers’ support is Martin Tairo Maseghe who fears that many more strikes could be on the way. And he doesn’t spare the KQ management a tongue lashing for bungling it. “If more strikes are staged, it will be because of a bad precedent set by the government and employers, including Kenya Airways. Why didn’t KQ award the 20 per cent salary increase before the strike notice lapsed?”


Published in the Daily Nation of 20th August, 2009.