The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Strike

  • Doctors’ strike

    Doctors’ strike

    •Federal Govt should honour agreement reached with them or, …

    If we may ask, why are our national health care services plagued by so many industrial disputes? It is always that either the doctors, or the nurses, or another arm of the health care providers, is threatening to go on strike, or has gone on strike. Even within the doctors’ rank, there are different groups. This is not good enough. A few days ago, the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) embarked on a nationwide strike, to force the Federal Government to fulfil an agreement allegedly reached with the association.

    According to the NARD President, Dr Muhammad Askira, the notice of the strike was designed to: “press home our demand for implementation, in one hand, and also to enable the government enough time to expedite action in arrears not adequately addressed”. He further said that: “NARD still believes that the government of President Muhammadu Buhari will honour all signed agreements as aptly captured during the meeting with the NMA.” So why has the Federal Government not performed on the agreement allegedly reached with NARD?

    If our memory serves us well, we know that once the doctors’ demand for enhanced welfare package is met, another group in the sector will use that as a reference to make its own demands. While we have no quarrel with workers asking for better pay packages, we have cause to worry when over and over again, such wage disputes disrupt our national health services. Of note, the association claims the Federal Government is failing to keep its promise despite earlier assurances by the President.

    Before the doctors embarked on the strike, the Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole, reportedly assured Nigerians that the Federal Government was doing all it could to avert the strike. With the strike commencing, is it that the Federal Government was unable to live up to the agreement referred to by the NARD President; or is it that the doctors were making unreasonable demands? Or is it a case of tardiness on the part of government?

    It would be unfair to deny the common man the relatively cheaper services that come from the public hospitals, especially now that disposable income is increasingly depreciating. We urge the Federal Government and the striking doctors to realise that the current dispute is adding more hardship to a table overflowing with non-payment of salaries, chaotic public transport system, inadequate urban housing and several other social challenges faced by the urban poor.

    Perhaps as part of its change agenda, the Federal Government could commission a comprehensive national wage and benefit chart for all sectors of the economy, so that the perennial challenges of adhoc contest for wages and remuneration by different segments of the labour force would be eliminated. It would be less acrimonious if even before proceeding to study a course, one is apprised of the likely benefits that would come from it. Also, a national statistical planning would help the country project the future demands in every sector, the supply chain and the economic capacity needed to sustain it. Such a plan is important.

    We also feel that while the doctors are entitled to demand for enhanced welfare package, the perennial resort to strike does not speak well of them, as essential service providers, sworn on the famous Hippocratic oath. With the strike, Nigerians who cannot afford the costly services of the private health care givers are left to suffer and probably die.

    We urge the Federal Government and the striking doctors to resolve their dispute, in the overall interest of our common humanity. If there was an agreement between the government and the doctors, this should be implemented. And if there are reasons why this cannot be, the government and the doctors should come together to iron out the grey areas. Until that is done, however, pacts remain binding.

  • Plateau NUT issues strike warning

    The Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Plateau State wing, has warned that it may  declare a strike in some local governments if council administrators insist on imposing education secretaries on them, rather than choosing from their members at the basic level.

    To make good its warning, the union plans to stage a peaceful protest as a prelude to the strike.

    After meeting with NUT leaders from the 17 councils at the council secretariat, the chairman, Comrade Gunshin Yarlings, said: “It is our strong desire as a stakeholder in the education sector to compel government to appoint education secretaries from among the primary school teachers who are acquainted with problems at the primary education level.

    “But most Local Government Areas have continued to appoint education secretaries from secondary schools and ministry of education and impose them on primary schools.

    “We have tried to let government understand that primary school teachers possess better experience at that level to manage primary schools. Therefore, imposing appointees outside primary school teachers is unacceptable.

    “Only few local governments in the state have complied with appointing education secretaries from among the primary school teachers.

    “We have made passionate appeal to the local governments that are yet to comply, but they have refused our plea.

    “We have, therefore, planned a peaceful protest in all the local governments that have refused to work with primary school teachers as a mark of warning to those councils to comply.

    “If the situation remains unchanged after the peaceful protest, the next option is to declare full strike in those local governments.

    “We have decided to issue this warning to relevant government authorities in the education sector to intervene and avoid the impending strike.

    “We are ready to shut down any local government authority that refuses to appoint education secretaries from among primary school teachers since primary school teachers have the same qualification as their counterparts in secondary school.

    “This is why we appealed to Governor Simon Lalong to ensure he puts the round pegs in round holes.

    “We appeal to the governor to intervene now to avoid the impending strike”

  • Labour leader alleges withdrawal of Ekiti funds despite strike

    Labour leader alleges withdrawal of Ekiti funds despite strike

    THE court-validated Chairman of Ekiti State Trade Union Congress (TUC), Kolawole Olaiya, has raised the alarm that funds are being withdrawn from the state’s treasury despite the strike embarked upon by workers.

    He claimed that the Ministry of Finance has been releasing warrants to some senior government officials during the industrial action under “tight security” because of the threat of labour clampdown.

    According to him, funds are being released through the office of the Accountant General and Department of Expenditure in the Ministry of Finance in what he called “suspicious circumstances”.

    The labour chief expressed fear that the workers strike might take a longer time to resolve.

    “Governor Ayo Fayose is not interested in ending the strike as long as money is made available to him,” he said.

    Commissioner for Information Lanre Ogunsuyi described the alleged suspicious withdrawal of funds as a “mere rumour”, challenging Olaiya to produce concrete evidence.

    Ogunsuyi said: “The workers are on strike; I have seen them physically driving their colleagues out of office. I want to say with every sense of responsibility that this is a mere rumour that cannot be substantiated with concrete evidence.

    “We don’t respond to rumours because when we respond to such, people tend to believe in them. Since he cannot say Mr. X pays Mr. Governor so so amount, we cannot respond to it because it is a mere rumour.

    “In fact, as we speak, the governor is not even in town. Mr. Governor is not in the state and the strike is affecting all of us.”

  • Strike: Police deploy armoured tank in Ekiti governor’s office

    Strike: Police deploy armoured tank in Ekiti governor’s office

    Security was yesterday strengthened in and around government offices in Ekiti State, following tension over an attempt to break the ongoing workers’ strike.

    Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs) were deployed to the state secretariat, House of Assembly complex and the new Governor’s Office, which was seen as a move to stop labour from picketing the facilities.

    Several police Toyota Hilux vans with full compliments of battle-ready anti-riot policemen stood guard at the offices. They frisked those entering and conducted thorough search on vehicles.

    Officials of the state councils of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC) and Joint Negotiating Council (JNC) have been moving round offices to ensure compliance with the strike.

    They chased away some workers performing skeletal duties.

    The latest tension was sparked by a circular released on Tuesday by the Head of Service, Gbenga Faseluka, ordering Grade Level 13 officers and above and those on essential services to return to their duty posts.

    But the state police command claimed that the action was not aimed at stopping the picketing of Labour, but “a routine security work”.

    Police spokesman Alberto Adeyemi explained that the security measure was taken to protect government property and prevent nefarious activities against government offices since the workers are on strike.

    The NLC Chairman Ade Adesanmi said the police cannot stop labour from enforcing compliance with the strike, saying the “security beef-up is not a barrier”.

    Adesanmi said: “We won’t stop the police from doing their job, but they should not also disturb us , because we are only exercising our rights.

    “All the actions we had carried out were peaceful ones. We did not threaten or disrupt public peace. So, police deployment is not a barrier”.

    The labour chief flayed the order by Head of Service, saying civil servants would benefit from the struggle at the end of the day.

     Defying the strike, according to him, amounts to “betrayal of trust.”

  • I’m on strike too, says Fayose

    I’m on strike too, says Fayose

    •Ekiti youth demand Gov’s resignation 

    Can a state governor go on strike apart from the annual leave he is entitled to? Is it constitutional for a state chief executive to embark on an industrial action?

    This is the drama unfolding in Ekiti State where Governor Ayo Fayose has told the people of the state that he is now on an “indefinite strike” in solidarity with civil servants who have been on strike for almost two weeks to protest the non-payment of their five months salaries.

    Government business and academic activities in public schools have been paralysed since May 24 when the labour unions in the state declared an indefinite strike action over the arrears of salaries owed them.

    Fayose in a broadcast monitored on the state television by our correspondent yesterday said his own industrial action was to show that he shared the pains and frustrations of the workers in agitating for their pay.

    But an interest group, Ekiti Youth Vanguard, has called on Fayose to resign if he has no solution to the problems of the workers who he promised to take care of during the 2014 governorship election campaigns.

    The youth group slammed the governor for allegedly sponsoring protests against state workers on Tuesday when drivers unions members took to the streets condemn the two-week-old strike.

    Labour leaders were angered by Fayose’s statement that he won’t sell his family to pay workers, describing the statement as ‘not only insensitive but inflammatory.”

    The governor was explicit that what he has been declaring as amount accruing to the State as internally generated revenue and the N2.6 billion workers’ wage bill were true positions of the state finances.

    “I want to tell workers that I have placed myself on indefinite strike in solidarity with you. I shared your pains , but it was rather unfortunate that a man can’t give what he doesn’t have.”

    The  Ekiti Youth Vanguard in a statement  by its Director of Organisation, Bewaji Damilare, described Fayose as a “dangerously pretentious individual pretending to love the workers but denying them their legitimate salaries and still sponsoring protests to blackmail them for demanding their right from the government”.

    They sympathised with the workers over hard times allegedly imposed on them and urged them to remain resolute and undaunted in theIr demand for their right in the face of  harassment and intimidation by sponsored agents protesting against them on behalf of the governor.

    The group warned  the governor against sponsoring his agents to blackmail the workers, maintaining that such an act is dishonourable.

    It also urged the workers to remain steadfast in the fight for their right as Ekiti people are solidly behind them.

     

  • 10 months’ unpaid salaries: Kwara workers begin strike

    The Committee of Unions of Tertiary Institutions (CUTI) comprising COLAASU, SSUCOEN and NASU Kwara State College of Arabic and Islamic Legal Studies (CAILS) chapter has condemned the neglect of workers of its institutions by the state government.

    The association said since the state government had refused to fulfill its part of the agreement reached following the four months strike, they decided to embark on an indefinite strike until their salary arrears were cleared.

    A statement from the group signed by its chairman, Comrade Mohammed Umar Faruq, and its secretary, Comrade Usman K Ali, said: “Sequel to the suspension of the four month strike action by CUTI on 18th February, 2016 following the intervention by stakeholders and the acceptance of responsibility by the state government to pay salary arrears according to the management, the staff are still being owed from August, 2015 till date.

    “We have over time endured non-implementation of annual increments, non-monetisation of 2013 promotion, non-implementation of 2014 and 2015 promotions and non-implementation of 2013 migration of concerned staff.

    “Our members can no longer withstand the predicament caused by the above situations. In view of the above at the congress held last week Wednesday, it was resolved that the management must effect all the above prayers on or before Friday, particularly payment of 10 months outstanding salaries or be left with no option from the staff than to immediately resume the suspended strike action”, the statement read

    Meanwhile, the workers of the Kwara State College of Education, Oro have also begun an indefinite strike over unpaid eight months salary arrears.

  • APC hails Ekiti workers’ steadfastness on strike

    APC hails Ekiti workers’ steadfastness on strike

    •’Fayemi not to blame for inability to pay workers’

    EKITI State All Progressives Congress (APC) has hailed workers for their steadfastness in the ongoing indefinite strike to force Governor Ayo Fayose to pay their five-month salary arrears.

    The party faulted Fayose’s claim during his media chat last Friday that the debt left behind by his predecessor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, hampered him from paying workers’ salaries

    Fayose accused Fayemi of taking loans that would last till 2036 for full repayment.

    He said deductions from the Federal Allocation for debt payments had left the state with peanuts that are not even enough to pay salaries.

    But the APC said the workers and people of Ekiti have now seen Fayose’s real character, describing the allegation against Fayemi as wicked manipulation of the ignorance of the people to justify “an unconscionable and mindless treatment of Ekiti workers while he (Fayose) enjoys lavish life”.

    In a statement yesterday, the APC spokesman, Taiwo Olatunbosun, accused the governor of insincerity and using the people’s ignorance  to deceive workers over the state’s financial status.

    He said the governor had at different times given several figures as loans taken by Fayemi to deceive the people to hide his plans for the misapplication and misappropriation of Ekiti money.

    “Let us thank Governor Niyi Adebayo’s Commissioner for Finance, Bayo Aina, who foiled Fayose’s lie in 2003 when he (Aina) wrote to the House of Assembly of which I was a member, debunking Fayose’s claim that it would take 15 years to pay back the loan taken by Adebayo, which he first put at N5 billion and later increased to N8 billion,” the APC spokesman explained.

    He added that instead of alleged debt left by Adebayo, Fayose met surplus of N1.7 billion in 2003, but which he never explained to Ekiti people until the N1.3 billion poultry project fraud emerged over which he was impeached and was still facing criminal charges in court.

    “The Adewale Omirin-led House of Assembly approved for Fayose to take N2 billion Central Bank loan for artisans and small-scale traders. But up till now, he has not given one naira to anybody.

    “He deceived the workers that April federal allocation is N700 million even though the Federal Ministry of Finance figure as published in the newspapers indicated that Ekiti collected N1.08 billion and you wonder what the governor did to the balance of N300 million.

    “He has so far collected about N20 billion loans, which he would not disclose to Ekiti people. These include the N9.6 billion bailout cash and another N10 billion taken from another bank. He also denied collecting refunds on federal roads and misapplied N2 billion Ecological Fund cash, which he denied collecting for a long time until our party applied for FOI Law to get the fact in the Fund’s Office in Abuja.

    “He paid one month salary from N9.6 billion bailout and nobody knows what he did with the balance the same way that no one knows what he  does with the fresh N10 billion loan and the interest it generates in the secret account he keeps  the money after vowing several times never to borrow a naira to run his government.

    “Even as he continues to give inconsistent figures to workers as the state internally-generated revenue, including lying against the workers that they are part of revenue sharing after collection from Abuja. While Fayemi borrowed for development purposes, which can be seen in roads and other development structures across the state, Fayose keeps padding, spending Ekiti money on projects rehabilitation fraudulently over-priced and given to his friends and cronies while Ekiti workers suffer,” he explained.

    Describing as provocative Fayose’s habit of asking workers to bear with him in empty stomach while regularly taking his monthly N250 million security vote without funding the security agencies, Olatunbosun challenged the governor to publish the state audited accounts.

    He urged Fayose to publish the state’s internally generated revenue profile like Fayemi did periodically and stop blackmailing the former governor over “fraud-motivated instincts to exploit the ignorance of the people to a fraudulent advantage”.

  • France: Strike hits all eight oil refineries

    A strike over new labour laws has spread to all of France’s eight oil refineries, the CGT union says, in an escalating dispute with the government.

    An estimated 20% of petrol stations have either run dry or are low on supplies.

    Clashes broke out at one refinery early yesterday when police broke up a picket at Fos-sur-Mer in Marseille.

    Prime Minister Manuel Valls insisted the labour laws would stand, and that further pickets would be broken up.

    “That’s enough. It’s unbearable to see this sort of thing,” he told French radio. “The CGT will come up against an extremely firm response from the government. We’ll carry on clearing sites blocked by this organisation.”

    The strike has gradually spread across France’s fuel infrastructure, hitting oil refineries, fuel depots and petrol stations across the country.

    The government said two out of every 10 petrol stations were affected, but motorists uploaded details of many more that had problems with supplies.ave been providing updates on petrol shortages across the country

    Police moved in early at dawn on Tuesday to dismantle a blockade outside the Fos-sur-Mer oil refinery and petrol depot at Marseille port.

    Tear gas and water cannon were fired, projectiles thrown, and tyres and pallets set alight, reports said. Several people were hurt on both sides.

    In his first intervention in the dispute, President Francois Hollande denounced the blockade as a “strategy supported by a minority”.

    Multinational Total, which owns five of France’s oil refineries, threatened to review its investments in response to the disruption.

    “If our colleagues want to take an industrial asset hostage for a cause that is foreign to the company, you have to ask whether that is where we should invest,” Chief Executive Patrick Pouyanne told reporters.

    He cited a planned €500m modernisation plan at Donges, near the western port of Saint-Nazaire, where some of the biggest disruption took place yesterday.

    “I’m not saying we won’t go ahead with it, just that we must learn the lessons of what’s happening and review these plans.”

    The union is aiming to cut output by half at the refineries and wants strikes on the railways as well, in an attempt to reverse labour laws that make it easier for companies to hire and fire staff.

    There are concerns that the disruption may affect the Euro 2016 football championships, with one former union leader saying the event is not “sacred”.

    The government provoked union outrage when it resorted to a constitutional device to force its watered-down labour reforms through parliament without a vote, earlier this month.

  • Why NLC’s strike flopped

    SIR; Without any iota of doubt, the recent strike called by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to force the federal government to reverse the hike in petrol price flopped. It recorded low compliance leaving only a handful of labour leaders in the protest across the states.

    What caused the flop? The reasons are not far-fetched: the NLC went on the strike with a divided house. While NLC President, Comrade Ayuba Wabba was blowing hot on the issue, the other factional group was blowing cold; associated unions like NUPENG and PEGANSSAN did not see need for the strike and therefore withdrew their support.

    Moreover, there is this floating feeling among Nigerians that the fuel price though painful, will make fuel available as fuel shortage has been a recurring decimal. In any case, many Nigerians were already buying the product at the cut-throat price of N250 per litre. They didn’t see the new price as new.

    Then was the Federal Government’s argument on the need to stop paying petroleum marketers subsidy and that liberalizing the downstream sector will open the domestic market for competition.

    In the context, labour was expected to show understanding and when it did not, many Nigerians poured their anger on the NLC which was accused of hitherto keeping a sealed lip on some other pressing matters  such as rip-off of Nigerians by some filling stations’ and the non-payment of workers’ salaries  in many states of the federation for upwards of five months now.

    If the union must win back the confidence and trust that it once enjoyed in the Oshiomole era, it must return to the drawing table and get its act together.

     

    • Sola Lebile,

    Akure, Ondo State.

  • NLC ready for negotiation as it suspends ‘successful’ strike

    NLC ready for negotiation as it suspends ‘successful’ strike

    The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has suspended the nationwide strike called to protest the increase in the price of petrol.

    The Labour centre described the action as a huge success.

    In a communiqué at the end of a two-hour meeting of the National Executive Council (NEC), the congress said it was ready to return to the negotiating table to discuss the issues that led to the strike and other burning issues affecting the welfare of workers.

    It said in calling the action, it expected challenges from both within and outside the congress and was not surprised by government’s negative response, adding that it felt fulfilled by having the presence of mind and courage to identify its mission.

    The communiqué signed by the President of Congress, Comrade Ayuba Wabba and the General Secretary, Dr. Peter Ozo-Eson however said it will continue to resist wrong legislations, policies and programmes of government and will always act in the best interest of Nigerians as it remains the only pan Nigerian organisation not affected by religion, region, creed, partisanship or primordial sentiments.

    The congress urged the government to play by the rules in its engagement with its constituent parts, stakeholders and non-state actors as proof of its commitment to deepening democracy.

    It commended National leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the National Assembly for their intervention and asked the citizenry to be vigilant at all times as the price of freedom is eternal vigilance.

    The Communiqué reads: “An emergency meeting of the National Executive Council (NEC) of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) held today, Sunday, May 22, 2016 at Bolton White Hotels, Abuja on the on-going protest action against the increase in pump price of petroleum products and hike in electricity tariff.

    “NEC reviewed the protest action and its impact across the nation, noting the sacrifices of its members, response of the generality of Nigerians, government’s attitude and the brutality of the police in some states. NEC took special notice of the Ebonyi State Police Command where our members were intimidated, harassed, arrested and detained unjustly.

    “After an exhaustive deliberation, NEC noted its protest action was informed by the twin issues of the unjustified and illegal hike in electricity tariff and increase in the pump price of petroleum products. NEC adjudged the protest action to be a success in spite of both internal and external challenges.

    “NEC reiterated the correctness of its position on the twin-issues of electricity tariff hike and astronomical increase in the pump price of PMS and the hardship they portend for Nigerian masses.

    “NEC also acknowledged that the temptation to compare the strike action with that of 2012 could be compelling but that the scenario had changed as both the actors and the terrain were different.

    “NEC said before it had embarked on the action, it had anticipated a probable outcome and therefore was not surprised by government’s negative response. Nonetheless, it felt fulfilled by having the presence of mind and courage to identify its mission and fulfilling it, stressing that if a similar situation arises again, it will still rise and stand with the people.

    “NEC therefore commended those who took part in the action in one way or the other and reaffirm its commitment to the struggle.  The action, it reiterated was taken in the best interest of the poor and the weak and in drawing government’s attention to the dangers of relying on importation of petroleum products as a sustainable strategy for making available petroleum products. It expressed the belief that in the days ahead, time would prove its position right.

    “Congress singled out for commendation, its state councils, affiliates and other patriotic Nigerians who at very short notice picked up the gauntlet for this struggle. Congress commends the leadership of the National Assembly and All Progressives Congress led by Senator Ahmed Bola Tinubu.

    “In consideration of the above, NEC after due consultation with its constituents resolved to suspend with immediate effect, the action it commenced on Wednesday, May 18, 2016. The action is thus hereby suspended.

    “Congress will resume negotiations with government on the twin issues of the hike in electricity tariff and an increase in the pump price of petroleum products and any other issue that may arise thereof.

    “It similarly remains committed to genuine dialogue within the framework of internationally established and recognized principles of representation.

    “The Congress will continue to resist wrong legislations, policies and programmes and will always act in the best interest of Nigerians as it remains the only pan Nigerian organisation not affected by religion, region, creed, partisanship or primordial sentiments.”

    “The Congress urges the government to play by the rules in its engagement with its constituent parts, stakeholders and non-state actors as proof of its commitment to deepening our democracy and also in acknowledgment of the well-worn credo that what goes around, comes around.

    “The Congress also urges the citizenry to be vigilant at all times as the price of freedom is eternal vigilance. The Congress commends all Nigerians for their understating and support”.