The Nigeria Labour Congress has directed all its members and affiliate unions to commence a nationwide strike today Thursday 27th September 2018.
The organised labour had held a meeting with the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, in Abuja on Wednesday, which did not produce the expected outcome.
The NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, said the industrial action would commence due to the refusal of the Federal Government to reconvene the meeting of the tripartite national minimum wage committee to enable it to conclude its work.
He said,
“In compliance with this mandate, all workers and private sector at all levels across the country have been directed to comply.
“All public and private institutions, offices, banks, schools, public and private business premises, including filling station, are to remain shut till further notice,” Wabba said at a news conference in Abuja on Wednesday.
The workers are demanding a new minimum wage of about N50,000 from the current national minimum wage of N18,000.
However, Ngige told journalists after a meeting with labour leaders that the tripartite committee on national minimum wage would resume negotiations on October 4.
“We are resuming precisely on Thursday, October 4, and the meeting can spill over to October 5. All the processes have been put in place and labour leaders know; they are now expected to communicate such to their organs; so we don’t have any need for a strike,” he said.
Asked if the government team had concluded its consultation on the minimum wage with governors, Ngige said it would be done when the tripartite committee resumed, adding that the government was still consulting with other stakeholders.
He said,
“Part of our consultation means the economic management team would have something to work on. Already, they are working on it, the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission is working on it and it is expected that before the October meeting, they would have been through with work.”
Ngige said a bill would still have to go through the National Assembly after approval by the Federal Executive Council.
But Wabba said the unions had to brief their organs before calling off the strike.
He said,
“Our demand is that the tripartite negotiating council should be brought back to complete its assignment. He has given us an update and we are taking back the discussion we had with him.”
But the NLC Secretary-General, Dr Peter Ozo-Eson, told one of our correspondents that the strike would proceed as planned,
He asked, “Have we said anything to the contrary?”
In another News, The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria said it would join the strike as long as its labour centre – the Trade Union Congress – was involved.
The spokesman for the organisation, Mr Babatunde Oke, said,
“We are going to be part of it. As long as our labour centre is involved, we are also involved. We are going to take part in the strike if TUC so directs us.”
Also, the national leadership of the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria directed its members to join the warning strike.
The President of JUSUN, Mr Marwan Adamu, said in a statement on Wednesday that “effective from midnight on Wednesday” all courts in the country must remain closed pending a counter instruction from the national secretariat of the union.”
On its part, the Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union said that it would embark on the warning strike in solidarity with the NLC.
The COEASU National President, Nuhu Ogirima, said,
“The academic union will join the strike because it has become evident that dialogue and diplomacy would not make the government change its stance.
He said,
“It is also expedient to take this action against the crass insensitivity of governments at both state and federal levels to the plight of the colleges of education.”
ASUU NEWS - But the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) said it would consult with its leadership and trustees before joining the strike.
The ASUU National President, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, told one of our correspondents on the telephone on Wednesday that he could not decide without an approval from the ASUU executives and trustees.
Ogunyemi said,
“We are part of the NLC. We are an affiliate of the NLC. But we are waiting for the final decision and we are consulting. I am also consulting with the ASUU leadership.”
But the Owerri Zonal Coordinator of ASUU, Prof Uzo Onyebinama, during a press conference at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State, on Wednesday said the union might join the strike.
In Abia State, the Chairman of the NLC, Chief Uchenna Obigwe directed federal and state government workers in the state to comply with the directive to embark on the strike.
Obigwe, while briefing journalists in Umuahia, said the NLC viewed the silence of the Federal Government to its demand for a new minimum wage as sabotage.
Meanwhile, a civil society organisation, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, has warned that the nation’s economy would be negatively affected by the strike, urging the NLC and the Federal Government to consider the national interests.
The SERAP Director, Adetokunbo Mumuni, said;
“In Nigeria, strikes are not an option; a strike will stop the economy and further impoverish Nigerians. What I seek is that the government should settle the minimum wage issue so that our economy can continue to operate at a full speed.
“The NLC should also consider the interests of the workers and of the nation and resolve this issue quickly.”
President, Textile Union, John Adaji (left); General Secretary, Issa Aremu and others leading a peaceful march to commemorate the Workers’ Day despite protest in Eagles Square, Abuja… yesterday. PHOTO: LUCY LADIDI ELUKPO
A rally planned for the Eagle Square in Abuja to mark this year’s May Day was disrupted yesterday as thousands of unionists demanded that President Muhammadu Buhari “must address the suffering workers.”
As in Nigeria, millions of protesters across the world hit the streets to mark the day. The protests became violent in some parts of Nigeria, France, Turkey, United States of America (USA), Spain and Russia, among others. In Abakaliki, the Ebonyi State capital, hoodlums violently disrupted a rally organised by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) forcing participants to flee.
Known as May Day, the first day of every fifth month is set aside either to celebrate workers’ rights or as a day of protests and riots. It traces its modern roots back to a world-changing explosion in Chicago. It was originally an ancient pagan holiday celebrating the start of summer. Different groups overtime adapted the celebration to suit their specific cultures and beliefs.
Nigerian workers have been pressing for as much 300 per cent increase in minimum wage — from the current N18, 000 (less than $50) — to mitigate the impact of official pump price of petrol which jumped from N86 per litre to N145.
The drama in Abuja started, when the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, failed to appear in person to address the workers, but said he would only deliver President Buhari’s message to them.
The workers, who claimed to have been deceived on many occasions by Ngige, approached the podium and disallowed further proceedings, warning that they would only listen to the president they voted for in 2015, especially as he had promised to help cushion the sufferings of millions of Nigerian workers.
Police disrupting a workers’ protest at Eagles Square, Abuja ...yesterday.
PHOTO: LUCY LADIDI ELUKPO
The scenario, took an uncontrollable twist when former Labour leader Adams Oshiomhole, who is also the immediate past governor of the South-South state of Edo, also mounted the podium to test his popularity thinking it was the solution to calm the aggrieved and disenchanted workers. He was, however, met with stiffer opposition as the chanting crowd assured him of a showdown.
The unfortunate event, threw the dignitaries, including the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara and the representative of the Senate President, into confusion. They were later shielded and rescued out of the venue by security men.
The workers, who defied police water tanks, also took over the podium and seized the microphones chanting ‘Ole …Ole’ (thief..thief) Some aggrieved workers later told The Guardian that the Eagle Square faceoff was a better opportunity to confront a Federal Government that has continued to deceive the people since its inauguration in 2015.
A senior civil servant, Mr. Isaac Omololu, said the large crowd that greeted this year’s May Day celebration at the Eagle Square depicted the apathy Nigerian workers had for the present government.
“Do not be deceived; do not think that we are here to praise government. All the people you see here have ears to hear one thing and that is the possibility of increasing the minimum wage, any other thing short of that is useless.”
“Our own mumu (foolishness) don too much. See how this people dey use us,” Mrs. Jane Yunus, another civil servant told our source. “The children of these government officials are abroad studying, yet we can’t pay school fees for our children in Nigeria. We are saying no to their sins”
The President of a faction of the NLC, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, said government must be held responsible for the suffering of Nigeria’s under-paid workers, even as inflation bites harder.
Wabba told the media that what happened at the event was nothing but a show of pure anger at what the workers are passing through in the last two years.
In her good will message to Nigerian workers, the Head of Service, Winifred Oyo-Ita enjoined them to sustain a focused support for the current government, as there are efforts to pay outstanding salaries soon.
The scenario in Nigeria also played out in other parts of the world as protesters took to the streets. Turkish government arrested hundreds as anti-government rallies swept through cities. Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports that Turkish police yesterday fired tear gas and plastic bullets at protesters seeking to march to Istanbul’s Taksim Square to celebrate May Day, in defiance of an official ban.
Istanbul police authorities said they arrested 165 people in connection with the protests, including 139 people for “unauthorised marches.” Police tried to stop around 200 protesters in the Gayrettepe district on the European side of Istanbul who wanted to walk to the famous Taksim Square in spite of the ban by city authorities, an AFP journalist said.
In France, the violence took a more dangerous dimension as French CRS anti-riot police officers were engulfed in flames as they faced protesters during a march for the annual May Day workers’ rally in Paris. The protesters had pushed a burning trolley towards them.
Also in Madrid, Spain, AFP yesterday reported thousands of people venting their anger at rampant corruption, as Spain’s ruling Popular Party (PP) finds itself embroiled in a new scandal.
The Moscow capital city of Russia also had its own share of the May Day violence yesterday, according to the AFP, as almost a million and a half people turned out in central Moscow the annual parade — many more than in past years — Russian police said.
“Nearly 1.5 million people marched on May 1,” AFP cited the Moscow police as saying in a statement quoted by Interfax news agency.
Source
Guardian
Subscribe to:
Posts
(
Atom
)
