By IPS Correspondents
ABIDJAN, Jul 5 2002 (IPS)

Former women employees of the now-defunct Air Afrique are demanding a ten-month salary in back pay still owed them by the airline.

The women lost their jobs when the airline folded last year.

And in late June they went on a hunger strike in Abidjan – Cote d’Ivoire’s commercial capital – where the venue of the airline’s former headquarters was located.

By embarking on the strike, the seven women, led by Eudoxie Beboh, of the Airline Workers Union, “wanted to inform the world about their plight”.

They protested in front of the regional headquarters of the French Development Agency in Abidjan. They accused the agency of “colluding with the airline’s management in laying off Air Afrique’s 4,000 workers.”

Air Afrique director Roland Billecard and his team were reportedly hired by the agency, which has a stake in the airline.

“They (the agency directors) knew about Air Afrique’s liquidation but didn’t bother to work out a plan to pay the workers. And yet they talk about cooperation between France and Africa. What is the purpose of this cooperation? To starve us to death? To make us suffer? If that’s it, let them go back to where they came from,” said Beboh.

Isabelle Askia, the company’s ex-human resources manager, and one of the hunger strikers, was stunned that in some local head offices, Air Afrique workers were paid on time.

“We want all workers to be treated equally. When our colleagues in Paris were laid off, they got everything they were entitled to. We want to put an end to this second-class employee status,” said Askia.

The Air Afrique workers in Abidjan have urged West African governments, who have a stake in the airline, to seize money the company still takes in from passenger-handling operations to pay them.

“They need to understand that we’re hungry. If they can’t pay what they owe us in full, they should at least give us something so our families can survive,” said Dr. Mamadou Diakite, Air Afrique’s former physician. “Many of us have lost our homes because we couldn’t pay rent. Our children couldn’t take their end-term exams because their parents couldn’t afford school fees”.

During the third evening of the strike, the Ivorian transport minister, Appia Kabran, visited the hunger strikers and told them, “Although I agree with your demands which are just, I believe what you are doing is unnecessary. You will never get your due through violence.”

Kabran, who is also the acting chairperson of the Conference of Transport Ministers of Air Afrique Member Countries, claimed “some Air Afrique managers are seeking to be paid from passenger-handling fees”.

“I don’t want to see you cheated,” he told the seven striking women.

Kabran said Abidjan had a lag in pay-cheques because half of Air Afrique’s workers, based in this sprawling city, did not produce half of the airline’s income.

“The headquarters’ total salaries were 1.5 billion CFA (around 2.142 million U.S. dollars). But even if the passenger handling fees were collected, it wouldn’t be enough to pay half the salaries,” Kabran explained.

At the end of their talks with Kabran, the women suspended their hunger strike, opting to negotiate.

A general meeting of the stakeholders to create a new company has been set for Jul 15.

Air Afrique, established in 1960 by eleven African heads of state in an attempt to improve regional integration, ceased operations with debts of 276 billion CFA (around 394.285 million U.S. dollars), and assets value at 58 billion CFA (around 82.857 million U.S. dollars).

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