Day 2: Groups support Ogun striking workers

…As labour leaders blast Amosun

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NIGERIA: NO fewer than 14 pressure groups have expressed solidarity support for the striking civil servants in Ogun State.

The groups, which included Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR), National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) and 12 other trade unions, said that they were solidly behind the aggrieved workers over their demands from the Senator Ibikunle Amosun-led All Progressive Congress (APC) administration.

They made the pledge on Wednesday at a solidarity rally held at the secretariat of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) along Abiola Way, Abeokuta, the state capital.

Angry unionists at the rally, attended by large numbers of the striking civil servants, some group and labour leaders, and officials of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP), castigated Amosun over what they called his non-challant attitude to their pitiable situations and demands.
They stated that workers would begin to sit at home any moment from now until government accede to their demands, just as they claimed that Amosun’s words could no longer be believed.

The NLC Chairman, Akeem Ambali, said that the striking workers were not afraid of arrest and detention by the government, adding that the workers would on Monday march in a protest to the Governor’s office at Oke-Mosan to further press for the demands.

“On Monday all of us will march to Oke-Mosan.  If he (Amosun) likes, let him bring one million police or soldiers, we are to go force to force,” Ambali said adding: “If he arrests us today, we are ready to go to cell, we are not afraid of detention.”

He went further: “The issue of saying they have opened registers is illegal. The Secretary to the State Government has not called us for dialogue. The government should have the political to invite us.

“If they invite today, we are going to dialogue with them.  We will not allow what is happening to workers in Osun and Oyo states to happen in Ogun State.”
Also speaking, the Chairman of the Joint National Public Service Negotiating Council (JNPC), Abiodun Olakanmi‎, said that the “no work no pay” threat by the government was a fallacy. Olakanmi, who argued that instead of “no work no pay,” it should be the reverse “no pay no work”, stated that the workers were not asking for salary raise, but demanding for their unremitted deductions made from their pay.
“We are not asking for any addition to our salary, all we are asking is for government to pay the unremitted deductions made from our salary,” he said.  “What we are asking for is the payment of gratuities, and pension. And until they pay all deductions, the strike continues. It is no pay no work. Their no pay no work is a fallacy.”

The Chairman, Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Dare Ilekoya, stated that he had been bombarded with reports from some teachers that they could no longer afford the payment of their children’s school fees.

“How do you expect such teachers to work consciously in their schools?” Ilekoya queried.