BENUE State chapter of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) shunned the workers’ day celebration held at Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida Square, Makurdi, the state capital.
As workers filed out in parade to celebrate the May Day, all affiliated unions under TUC shunned the celebration due to non-payment of workers’ salaries running to several months in the state.
As of April ending, state workers are being owed five months salaries while local government workers are owed nine months salaries.
Speaking on this, the state chairman of TUC, Comrade Orduen Tartenger, said there was nothing to celebrate with the backlog of salaries arrears owed his members.
According to him, “We decided not to participate in May Day celebration because there is nothing to celebrate. Is it with the salaries the government owed our members?
“It is better to stay off, we do not have the money to mobilise our members from all parts of the state, so, for us, we are celebrating it in a low key,” he said.
Meanwhile, the state governor, Samuel Ortom, has stated that the second trance of the Paris Club refund would be channelled to the payment of workers’ salaries and allowances of pensioners.
Ortom, who regretted the non-payment of workers’ salaries as expected, explained that his administration would continue to give priority to workers’ salaries, stating that the declaration of state of emergency was to urgently find ways of meeting the yearnings of workers, “even if it is to take loans.’’
The governor, however, declared every Friday from this week till July ending as work-free day for workers in the state to enable them to embark on farming activities.
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