TOO LATE AND TOO LITTLE AS UNION RUSHES TO REPAIR DAMAGE
The message to those part of Air Tanzanias workers union was stark and without sugar coating, when the Minister for Transport, in the face of grumblings and heckling at the announcement of management changes he recently announced, told the gathering that anyone who did not like it could quit, an uncharacteristically candid but nevertheless true statement by a Tanzanian cabinet minister.
Since then there have been persistent rumours awash in Tanzanias aviation industry of the union leaders using underhand, if not dirty tactics to assert their influence, a bane which keeps haunting ATCL and scuttled several attempts of privatization and reorganization in the past, as the unions deeply entrenched in the days of the command economy of the 70s in socialist Tanzania then tried to gain fresh influence.
These union officials live like in a different time zone. They have not understood what massive changes aviation has undergone over the past 40 years. They still follow the template of confrontation and glaring lack of comprehending what is today possible financially and not. Therefore their little statement yesterday is nothing but a window dress. They still think they own the airline because back then everything was owned by everyone under that failed economic policy in place in the 70s. Let them not deceive you, they are wolves in sheepskin a regular aviation source from Dar es Salaam erupted when asked to comment, following a statement by the Acting Chairman of the union. A Mr. Msuya had reacted to press and media reports the previous day when he sought to hood wink the public in believing that circulating media reports of the union being radically opposed to the changes implemented by the Minister were not true. He went on to blame selfish individuals for the unions fresh woes, a too little and too late attempt to save the milk from being spilled and few would attach any credibility to such attempts to deflect responsibility of what is going on at the highest level of that union head office. Tough times ahead for the airlines new management when clearly there is a 5th column hard at work to oppose necessary hard decisions from being taken and implemented and when more time had to be spent defending from attacks within and close up than tacking market shares and the financial survival of the airline carrier. Watch this space as the ATCL saga clearly is heading into some new chapters.
