By Gift Olivia Samuel, The Sight News
Nigerian workers under the aegis of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) as well as Civil Society allies have disclosed plans to embark on a peaceful protest in Port Harcourt, Rivers State on September 8, 2020.
The protest they said, is to draw the attention of the world to the new progeny of authoritarianism, industrial tyranny and state sponsored violence and terrorism against workers and citizens by the Rivers State Government.
The NLC President, Comrade Ayuba Wabba who made this disclosure Thursday in Abuja at a World Press Conference, said the Rivers State Government is carrying out acts of lawlessness by sealing off the NLC Rivers State Council.
The protest Wabba added, will also draw attention to several issues bedeviling the workers in the state, such as; Witch-hunting, Persecution and Prosecution of trade union leaders on trumped up charges; Non-payment of gratuity and pensions to pensioners since 2015; Non-payment of promotion arrears since 2015.
Others are; Withholding of workers’ salaries; Refusal to negotiate with workers’ organizations on salary adjustments consequent on the new national minimum wage; Use of Hired Thugs; as well as Refusal to remit statutory check-off dues to trade unions
According to Wabba, “The Rivers State government is owing some workers in the state up to 7-month salaries. The February and March 2016 salaries of teachers in Rivers state were not paid due to the biometric test ordered by the State Government. Health workers in Rivers State were denied their October 2017 salary due to their participation in the National JOHESU strike.
“Since the enactment of the new national minimum wage of N30,000, there has been no collective bargaining agreement and enabling circular for the implementation of the new national minimum wage in Rivers State. The state government has also refused to conclude negotiations on consequential salary adjustments with workers’ in Rivers State and has also excluded all the tertiary institutions in Rivers State from benefitting from any consequential salary adjustment.
“The Rivers state government deployed hired thugs to attack workers both individually and as a group. The attack of trade union leaders and violent disruption of the Rivers State Executive Council meeting on August 27, 2020 was only an icing on the cake of Wike’s malfeasance”, he noted.
Wabba emphasized that if after next week’s protest, Governor Wike continues to hold labour in contempt and fails to redress their concerns, they will be left with no other option than to ground every socio-economic activity in Rivers State until the Rivers State Governor does the needful.
“We wish to remind Mr. Nyesom Wike that the world has seen the rise and fall of even more unconscionable, atrocious, and blood thirsty tyrants. His own case will not be any different.
“Mr. Nyesom Wike should be well assured that Organized Labour in Nigeria and all over the world through our international network will continue to hold him to account and bring him to justice, even after the expiration of his current tenure in office, should any slightest harm come to any worker during our protest”, he stated.
