Leadership of organized labour, the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC and the Trade Union Congress, TUC have been advised to emulate the practise in advanced countries and devise other means of resolving trade disputes instead of embarking on strike actions at every slight opportunity.
Coalition of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in Nigeria made the call in a statement on Tuesday, August 8, 2023 and signed by Alex Omotehinse, the Coalition Secretary.
The statement reads: “There is a globally well-known, established and cherished principle in industrial labour relations and practices that, a workers’ strike action is generally weapon of last resort. It is rarely deployed, only when every other means of constitutional, amicable, alternative disputes resolutions mechanism and, social dialogue, negotiation avenues have been exhausted can an industrial strike action be embarked upon.
“This is because peace, stability and consistency are vital requisition for the industrial wheel to keep rolling. A simple disruption in industrial processes usually has fatal consequences on production outputs.”
According to Comrade Omotehinse, “In the last address of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to the nation, he assured Nigerians of his commitment and sincerity to speedily implement palliatives initiatives to lessen hardships in the polity and revamp decaying small and medium scale businesses. The Government is also conducting a forensic audit of its employees and pledge to commensurately review workers take home pay to meet up with their contemporary challenges. This, instead of another counterproductive strike action should be the focus of organized Labour. NLC and TUC.
“More importantly, our ailing national economy needs all productive hands-on deck to nurture it back to life as it does not have resilience to withstand loses of productive man-power hours under the guise of strike action. It would be an ill wind that would blow nobody, workers, employers, and Government no good.
“As much as we even concede that the matter in dispute can be settled out of court, we know that honest dialogue as partners always resolved the question of non-victimization of workers for engaging on a strike action. It is therefore, ludicrous to contemplate resolving this issue with another round of strike action.
“Our Coalition can discern the antics of some political prankster’s ploy to create crisis in the polity playing on the emotions of unwary citizens. We urged Nigerians to look beyond the pains of subsidy removal, noting it is a bold step that will favor the downtrodden masses in the long run once Government is able to block the leakages which a cabal is profiteering from. Things will turn for better season as soon as the palliatives packages are rolled out in full throttle.
“We urge Labour to be more retrospective and patriotic enough to shelf this planned strike action and embrace the processes of exhausting judicial remedies and dialogue. We are apt to point out that the demand of labour for the withdrawal of the “No Work, No Pay’ clause is a “ Dispute of Rights” not, “ Dispute of Interest”. Dispute of Rights are never settled by strike actions or picketing in industrial, labour relations practices.
“We should be vigilant not to fall into the snares of agents provocateurs calling for mass uprisings or a military coup. We cannot afford to drag the nation the precipice of anarchy and chaos. With the spate of military regime take-over in the West Africa sub region and specifically recently in Niger Republic, caution must apply in calling citizens out for street protests to avert misguided military hostilities that can abort our nascent democratic experience. Heating up of the polity can be hijacked by hoodlums leading to mass looting, wanton destruction and inevitable loss of lives and properties. This ill-conceived action will only further aggravate the sufferings of our people causes more harm to the harsh economic realities in the country.
The Civil Society Organizations are Forward to a Better Society, Frontline Socio-Economy Research Centre, Centre for Human and Socio-Economic Right, Network Alliance for Global Challenge, Good Governance for the Masses, Centre for Human Rights Advocacy and Lawyers Without Borders.
Other are: Youth Initiative Agenda for Democratic Process, Southwest People Parliamentary Agenda, Yoruba Youth Assembly, Peace Initiative For Better Nigeria, Boarders People’s Rights Agenda and Youth League Academy.
By Ajibola Adedoye