Ogun workers’ strike: Group cautions TUC/NLC

A pro-democracy group, the Campaign for Good Governance, has criticised the labour unions in Ogun State for calling on the state workforce to proceed on an indefinite strike from Thursday.

It described the call as politically-motivated, especially coming on the heels of a reported meeting by some of the union leaders with opposition politicians at the last World Teachers’ Day.

The state government had, on Tuesday, through a statement by the secretary to the state government, Mr Taiwo Adeoluwa, described the proposed strike as patently illegal and robed in politics, threatening to invoke the “no work, no pay” clause of the Trade Dispute Act.

According to a press release signed by its Publicity Secretary, Mr Ganiyu Lasisi, the Campaign for Good Governance said, “the industrial action is not about non-payment of salary, as no worker is being owed salary by the Amosun administration. This agitation can only be politically-induced, as no reasonable union will call out workers on a strike sorely on cooperative deductions, especially during the current economic downturn in Nigeria.”

Lasisi said the Trade Union Congress (TUC), which a few months ago, honoured Governor Ibikunle Amosun at the national level with the Excellence Award in Leadership in recognition of his being labour-friendly, should not be seen to recant so soon, noting that the union should not simultaneously approbate and reprobate.

“At the risk of being dubbed the government mouthpiece, we hasten to say that the current government of Ibikunle Amosun pays above the minimum wage and, we stand to be corrected, it is the only government in Nigeria that implemented the increment across board and up to the level of the local government,” he said.