The Casablanca Airports Air Traffic Controllers Union Bureau affiliated with the Democratic Confederation of Labor held a remote meeting on the evening of Monday, February 13, 2023, in order to coordinate and implement its progressive program of struggle through the first phase of a protest movement decided at the last general assembly on January 31, 2023.
He therefore decided (100%) to wear the armband at first before rising to a crescendo in actions as long as their demands are not satisfied. It’s a new stage of escalation which denotes the tense relationship between the Administration of the National Airports Office (ONDA) and the union of air traffic controllers at Casablanca airports.
Through a press release with CDT and National office of unified air traffic controllers, the national union of ONDA and of the National Bureau of Air Traffic Controllers of Casablanca Airports where he is denounced “the catastrophic situation prevailing at Mohammed V airport, the controllers justify their decisions by non-compliance with the commitments made by ONDA. They further deplore, the lack of response or interaction from the administration with their requests, demands or requests.
Also the union office of the air traffic controllers of the airports of Casablanca demands the immediate and unconditional return of their colleague Younes Ezzi to his place of work, namely in the control tower of the Mohammed V airport; the implementation by the administration of the agreements signed and its commitment to its promises; dignified working conditions in the control tower and proximity control hall with radar; to provide the recognized training necessary for the launch of aeronautical projects; the reform of the air traffic control system in general at Mohammed V airport and reconsideration of the mode of management of the file of frequent malfunctions of the proximity radar, in particular by the acquisition of a modern surveillance system to replace the current one; the construction of a state-of-the-art control tower that reflects the position of Mohammed V Airport as the largest airport in Morocco and one of the largest in Africa.
To do this, the trade union office decided to move on to a second phase of the planned struggle program, by: restricting the movement of aircraft by allowing only one aircraft to take off every fifteen minutes for a period of ten days, which may be extended, starting Tuesday, February 21, at 3 p.m. State and Royal Palace aircraft, military, medical and humanitarian aircraft are not subject to these restrictions. A daily sit-in will also be organized inside the workplace for ten days.
The trade union office, while placing the management of the institution and all the supervisory authorities managing the sector before their responsibility before a deterioration in the level of safety of air navigation in Casablanca airports, calls on all air traffic controllers to tighten the ranks and to rally around the CDT and make their program of struggle a success until the end.
This movement of contestation of the controllers does not date from today. Throughout the last financial year, they came within a whisker of carrying out their threats, but they are asked to be patient, given the difficult context that ONDA is going through, in connection with the effects of the two years of pandemic ( losses of 2 billion dirhams (2020) and 1.6 billion dirhams (2021)), they had deferred their movements and their potential demonstrations, including walkouts, in the hope of finally seeing the end of the tunnel. History seems to repeat itself.