The Nigeria Labour Congress has shut banks and other offices in Kaduna State as workers commence the five-day warning strike against anti-workers policy by the state government.
Addressing workers on Monday, the President of NLC, Ayuba Wabba, said all the affiliates from electricity to petroleum, railway, aviation and banks complied totally by shutting down all their facilities.
Wabba said the action would run its full course, unless the state government attended to the workers’ grievances.
Giving a hint on the scorecard of Governor Nasir el-Rufai on labour matters, Wabba said NLC resolved to end the gross violation of trade union rights.
According to him, some of their grievances include the sack of 7,310 local council workers in the state, sack of 3,000 civil servants, withholding April salaries of about 20,000 workers, non-remittance of statutory check-off dues to trade unions, unlawful reversal of minimum wage for local council employees, non-implementation of promotions, as well as intimidation and harassment of workers to opt out of the union, among others.
He added, “We are also aware that 1,700 workers were sacked in the Primary Health Care Development Agency. All these are happening in the face of exorbitant increment in tuition fees, high cost of living and other uncalled-for actions in Ministries, Departments and Agencies in the state.
“Fuel stations, hospitals, banks, railway and airport, among others have been closed because we must take our destiny in our hands, if the situation in Kaduna and Nigeria cannot change. We cannot accept the bitter pills; we are here in Kaduna today because the labour law in Nigeria says before you can declare redundancy, labour shall be consulted, and we were never consulted. We have the right to protest peacefully without being intimidated or harassed.”
Wabba urged the governor to go after criminals, especially kidnappers and bandits terrorising the state, and not workers who earn their legitimate wages.
