NLC to lead Kaduna workers on a five-day strike

The Nigeria Labour Congress said, on Thursday, that it would lead workers in both public and private sectors to embark on a state-wide strike and withdraw their services over the mass sack of workers by the state government.

The strike, which is to protest the mass strike will affect government and private organisations, NLC President, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, said after the meeting of the Central Working Committee of the congress meeting, held at the Labour House, Abuja.

Wabba, who addressed the media at the end of the meeting, said the five days withdrawal of service will become total if there is no remorse from the state government.

According to him, “the action will be total, and unconditional,” even as he stated that the congress would immediately issue directives to all the affiliate unions to direct their members to take the protest/withdrawal of their services in the state seriously; and that the protest action it goes ahead.

The NLC president decried the decision of Governor Nasir El-Rufai to sack about 4, 000 workers, adding that those sacked are mostly from the 23 local government areas in the state.

He said: “The CWC has decided and has also recommended to the National Executive Council, that labour will withdraw all services from either public or private. When I mean all services it means all services for all sectors of the economy for five days in the first instance and where there is no remorse, it is going to be a total action because we believe that El-Rufai is not alone in this action; that neo-liberal forces and some governments are also part of it.

“We wonder why this action (sack) has not been called to order by other agencies of government because of the grave implication of this action where political office holders violate laws and constitutional provisions with impunity and nobody is ready to call them to order. We thought that it is high time the workers also exercise their right to protect the rights of workers that are in Kaduna and their families.

“This action is going to be total, and unconditional and therefore, all unions will be issuing statements and directives to their members to take this directive seriously and that the action will go ahead. This action is taken as a last resort because all the communications that we have written so far on this issue have not received the attention of any person and therefore we thought that workers should not be allowed to die in silence because thousands of workers that have been sacked have not been paid in line with the provisions of the law and not only that, you cannot decide through a fiat what a worker will be paid when he/she is disengaged in this manner.

“More worrisome is the policy targeted at workers that have spent more than 30 years in service or some more than 20 years in service. In fact, the policy said that once you are up to 50 years in service you will be disengaged and be sent off like a slave or at worse like a dog without any entitlement.

“Secondly, the letter which we have seen, indicated that their entitlement will be paid in due course and that is the same letter that was issued to those teachers that were disengaged a year ago and therefore we look at this as very serious. In fact, it is something every Nigerian must condemn at this time and period that workers will be sent out in this manner.

“It is a very serious issue that I think every right-thinking Nigerian must back labour and this action that labour has proposed to be taken against the Kaduna State governor; who I think from all intent and purposes is driving neo-liberal policy.”

Wabba stated that Gov. El-Rufai violated all the known laws that regulate labour and industrial relation in Nigeria with some sort of disdain while carrying out his decision to sack the workers.

He regretted that some teachers disengaged long ago by the state government were yet to receive their entitlements to date.

The NLC president added: “The entire working class in Nigeria have condemned the massive sack of thousands of workers in Kaduna. The CWC condemns the conversion of workers to casuals by the Kaduna State government under the pretext of the paucity of funds or drops in revenue.”

YOU SHOULD NOT MISS THESE HEADLINES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE

COVID-19: Nigeria Recorded 624 New Infections Last Week, Lowest In Over Five Months

Last week, Nigeria recorded 624 new COVID-19 infections which is the lowest the country recorded in five months, Tribune Online analysis shows.NLC to lead Kaduna workers on a five-day strike

The 624 new cases reported between March 28 and April 3 is a reduction from the 849 recorded the previous week…NLC to lead Kaduna workers on a five-day strike