A human rights group, the International Solidarity for Peace and Human Rights Initiative (IS4PHRI) have expressed its displeasure over the way and manner Nigeria’s major labour unions, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) are handling the increase in the pump price of petrol and electricity tariff.
IS4PHRI, in a statement by its president and secretary, Comrade Osmond Ugwu and Jerry Chukwuokolo, respectively, said it was particularly disturbed by the issuance of a fresh ultimatum by the NLC to the federal government, given that TUC had earlier issued an ultimatum against the unpopular policy which is due to expire in September 23.
The group noted that, “the implication of this untraditional development is that when the industrial action of TUC takes off on Wednesday 23rd September 2020, some categories of workers whose unions are affiliates of NLC would be going to work in the same MDAs and sectors.
“This development is quite untraditional of the hitherto practice. In the past, NLC used to be on the forefront of the struggle and had always worked together with TUC in solidarity with each other, issue a joint statement and directive and start off action at same time.
“For more effective impact and result, industrial actions normally start simultaneously in one sector and all workers in one sector or MDA join the action at the same. A situation where some workers in one Ministry, Department or Agency embark on strike while others are going to work is always a disservice to the struggle and collective interest of all.”
In view of the circumstance, the human rights group called on the leadership of NLC “to be more pro-active in handling this present challenges facing the Nigeria state and her people of which the working class are the major victims.
“We are shocked that it is taking NLC a whole lot of time to react and take appropriate action since the government took the rash action. It is expected that NLC would have acted so swiftly and timely by declaring first phase of strike before commencement of any meeting with the government as has been the tradition and practice in the past.
“The 14-day ultimatum of NLC will definitely going to be a setback to the already proposed actions of TUC and Civil Society that is planned to start on 23rd September 2020. Besides that, it will bring confusion to the entire excercise, create room for witch-hunt of some workers by the management as well as make the whole excercise prone to sabotage and failure.
“In the light of the foregoing, we call on the two Labour Centres to go back to drawing board and come up with a common framework and strategy that will make the planned industrial action and protests to be uniform in other to make maximum impact and achieve effective result.”
