Labour, Kogi govt spit fire over proposed strike

THE organised labour in Kogi state on Monday accused the state government of threatening and intimidating its members over the plan to embark on strike action from Friday.

The workers alleged that the state government had already been threatening them with its “no work, no pay” slogan, saying “nothing, other than the meeting of all our demands will stop Kogi workers from down tooling as from Friday 22nd September 2017”.

A statement signed by the secretaries of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Olakunle Faniyi, that of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Kolawole James and that of the Public Service Joint Negotiating Council, Ibrahim Abubakar, however urged the worker to remain steadfast.

The workers had last week given the state government a seven-day ultimatum that will lapse on Thursday, following which they will resume their suspended strike action if government failed to meet their demands.

The statement read, “As predicted, the government has begun her antics of threats and intimidation of workers, brandishing the weapons of sack and the over used but ineffective ‘no-work-no-pay’ slogan, all of which have no place in any civilised setting.

As we all know, whoever that is down does not fear fall anyone, this government has brought workers down to the lowest level and as such we fear neither fall of sack nor non-payment of salary.

“We encourage you to discountenance all the threats and intimidation being dished out by the officers of this government and remain focused and determined to carry this struggle to its logical conclusion. Be resolute and defend your jobs now or never.

“We urge you to disregard all the maneuvering of government aimed at using flimsy and irrelevant innuendoes to take attentions away from the core foundation of our agitation. We are resolute in saying NO to the casualization of the Kogi state workforce through the clock-in-clock-out policy, we reject completely the attempt of government to use a hoarse contributory pension scheme to further impoverish workers.

“We insist that government pay the salaries/pension of workers/pensioners who have been denied salaries/pension for the past 21 months and other categories of arrears ranging from 2 to thirteen months and we demand the stoppage of percentage payment of salaries to primary school teachers and local government workers”.

The organised labour also urged government to channel her energies towards meeting all its demand and stop dissipating energy on the status of signatories of the documents emanating from it.

But the state government in its reaction, said nothing would make it change its stand on some of the issues raised by the worker, saying the state would soon be salvaged from subversive forces.

The government through the director general, media and publicity to the governor, Kingsley Fanwo, asked civil servants to go about their legitimate businesses as government would do everything possible and legal to provide the right environment for those that are willing to work.

He said, “With the electronic register at the MDAs, punctuality to work places has been amazing. This government will not change a winning formula, more so that the workers have embraced it.

The call by labour is preemptive and reek of defeatist tendencies. Labour can speak for Labour, not for government. They should await our response.

“Kogi State will surely be salvaged from every subversive force. We shall move forward. Our doors are always open to labour if they have issues to iron out with government. Strike is an instrument of freedom and every freedom has its process of exercise as well as limitations. This is a responsible government that has sworn to protect the rule of law and the people of Kogi State. That we shall do”.