The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, says in trying to ensure
amicable resolution of conflict with the Kaduna State government, it shall not
be intimidated by threats, veiled or otherwise.
The NLC assured that it stands ready to be bound by the
FGN-brokered peace/MoU, saying that no single party to an agreement can sustain
the agreement.
The Head of Information and Public Affairs, Nigeria Labour
Congress, Comrade Benson Upah, in a rejoinder to the broadcast made by governor
Nasir El-Rufai after the suspension of the 5-day warning strike in the state,
said, “Ordinarily we would not have responded to this address which is laced
with uncomplimentary remarks, accusatory comments, falsehood and threats
against us. However, to remain silent would mean admission of guilt.”
The NLC said they did not assault the rights, freedoms and
livelihoods of the citizens of Kaduna State even though they were in Kaduna
State for four days in exercise of the rights conferred on them by the 1999
constitution (as amended) and ILO Conventions 87 and 98 (freedom of
association/expression/right to unionisation), and the corpus of Labour Law (
right to protest and strike).
He explained that their presence in Kaduna was made
inevitable “by the refusal of Kaduna State Government to dialogue after our
letter of April 9, 2021,” stressing that their letter was a response to the
letters of sack issued to workers from March 31 to April 1 in utter violation
and contempt of their fundamental terms of contract of employment and
redundancy law as per Labour Act S. 20.
Comrade Benson Upah said their coming to Kaduna followed all
due process permitted by the body of Labour Law.
“When we did come into Kaduna State on the appointed date,
we came publicly and not stealthily. We withdrew our services and marched
peacefully along Independence Way/Muhammadu Buhari Way to NEPA Roundabout in
line with the provisions of the law but we were assaulted and violated by a mob
recruited, mobilised and deployed by the State Government,” he explained.
He added, “Some of the victims of the attack are still in
hospital receiving treatment. It is equally important to point out that in the
course of our protest march, we neither visited any office let alone harass
anyone out of any. We strictly kept to these two streets without breaking a
twig or plucking a flower.”
He stated that they were orderly and peaceful and not
lawless as alluded to by Mr Governor, explaining, “Indeed, if any one was
lawless, it was the State Government that took pride in engaging thugs and
vitriol to the point of boasting that by the time they were done with us, we
would never again come to Kaduna.”
The statement noted that the threat would have been carried
out but for the thoughtful presence of the security agencies.
NLC lamented that not satisfied even after they had
suspended the action on Wednesday following the intervention of the Federal
Government, the State Government deployed an amarda of thugs to our state
secretariat on Thursday morning to seize the place.
Upah explained that the duplicity of the State Government
was exposed by the unsuspecting old women it had lured with a promise of
palliative only for them to find themselves ranged against us, saying that some
of them wept in shame and pain and left to the chagrin of those that misled
them.
The NLC observed that to the substantive issue of
right-sizing, they believed that government’s policy of right-sizing as claimed
by the Governor cannot be at the expense of the legal or humanitarian rights of
workers.
In propaganda, according to NLC, “truth is sometimes mixed
with falsehood with the purpose to confuse or create doubt”, guessing that this
must be the intent of the State Government when it introduced the issue of the
National Minimum Wage in the broadcast, adding that for the benefit of those
who cared to listen, their action had nothing to do with the National Minimum
Wage.
According to NLC, “We did not impose misery on the people of
Kaduna State as is alluded to here. Between us and the State Government, the
people know who sacked them en-mass without their terminal benefits, violated
the fundamental terms of their contract of employment, pulled down their houses
in Malali, shops along virtually every street corner or in the
markets…..destroyed their only means of livelihood without providing an
alternative. The people know who destroyed their lives and their city,
promoting insecurity.”
The NLC said they were completely at a loss by the
vituperations of the Governor even after the Minister of Labour and Employment
had apprehended this dispute at the instance of the Federal Government and an
MoU signed between the State and NLC.
According to NLC, “It is well with us either way. We have
the meeting of the National Executive Council scheduled for today Tuesday 25th
May, 2021 to de-escalate or escalate this process.”
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