The Campaign for Democratic and Workers Rights, Oyo State Chapter has decried and frowned at the decision by the state labour leaders under the aegis of the Nigeria Labour Congress to suspend the strike action embarked upon by workers since May 26, 2015 over the failure of the Senator Abiola Ajimobi-led government to pay their February to April 2015 salaries.
CDWR based its criticism on the fact that the strike was suspended even when the government had not fulfilled any of the demands of the workers.
It said it considers the suspension of the strike by the labour leaders, without recourse to Congress of workers, as a wrong step.
In a statement by its State Coordinator, Abiodun Bamigboye, the CDWR said it was of the opinion that Workers’ Congress would have been the appropriate avenue to take a position on such a vital decision on whether to continue or suspend the strike.
The statement added: “The Comrade Olojede-led State executive of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) reportedly suspended the two-week industrial action and asked the striking workers to resume to their duty post starting from Monday 8th June, 2015. The labour leaders arrived at this decision without the consent of the striking workers on the basis of a claim that the state government had signed with them a vague and unspecified Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that the three months unpaid salaries arrears will be paid to workers in grade levels one to 12 as soon as the next allocation to the state was released while levels 13 and above would be paid later.
“This MOU is highly deceptive; divisive and lack every sense of sincerity. Workers must resist the imposition of this kind of MOU as a basis to suspend the strike action. Therefore, they should prevail on the labour leaders to call a Workers’ Congress where the decision on whether the strike should be reversed or not should be taken. For us in the CDWR, we enjoin workers not suspend the strike, but insist on the immediate and unconditional payment of their three months unpaid salaries arrears as the only condition through which the strike action can be suspended.
“The argument of the Ajimobi-led government that the state revenue is not enough to pay workers’ salaries is clearly dubious. The same state government that did not involve workers in how the previous revenues were spent, cannot then turn workers to the sacrificial lamb when it burns its fingers through its spendthrift habit. The same state government that claimed it has poor revenue base, committed public resources on frivolous things such as elaborate inauguration including procurement of Aso-ebi; election campaign; huge emolument for politicians and political office holders, among others.
“The last statement credited to the state Chairman of NLC, Comrade Olojede where he was quoted appealing to the State government that, “only condition that can make us appear before the NLC leadership is to have with us a mutually agreed Memorandum of Understanding spelling out how best and quickly salary and pension arrears can be paid and how the state will continue to pay them promptly”, leaves us in CDWR with no option than to doubt the sincerity behind the so-called MOU, thus affirm that such a MOU cannot be relied upon as a tool capable of guaranteeing the payment of the three months unpaid salary arrears. This is because the Labour leadership only needed the MOU not to enforce the payment of unpaid salary arrears but as a tool to be presented before the NLC national leadership so as to secure the permission to suspend the strike action.
“Given this background, one does not necessarily need a soothsayer to know that an MOU signed by such a government is only a ruse to deceive workers into abandoning their struggle. Rather than a nebulous MOU that left the payment of outstanding salaries into a distant future, Ajimobi government should spell out when and how it will pay the salary arrears, and let workers decide, through their Congress, whether they will accept such proposal. Also, workers must reject the divisive payment of salaries agreed to by labour leaders in the MOU, which means some workers will be paid, while others will not be paid.
“It in the light of this, we of the CDWR conclude that the arbitrary and unilateral suspension of the strike action is not in the best interests of workers and the struggle to have their salaries paid. This is why we insist that only the congress of the striking workers remains the only and legitimate avenue available for workers to hold and part-take in a discussion and debate that should precede the decision to either suspend or continue the strike action.”