|
NLC plans rallies to
protest bill
By Bassey Udo
Snr
Correspondent
and Bimbo Kesington
Reporter
(Abuja)
Labour would next
organise rallies across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT)
to protest the proposed Trade Union (Amendment) Bill.
Apparently shying away
from actions that may heat up the polity, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has
resolved to be persuasive by writing letters to members of the National
Assembly urging them to consider the long-term dangers posed to democracy if
dissenting voices are silenced through the proposed law.
These were part of the
resolutions at its emergency National Executive (NEC) meeting held on Monday in
Abuja.
NLC President Adams
Oshiomhole told newsmen after the meeting that the peaceful rallies are not
intended as an attack or hostile action against the National Assembly but a
subtle way of putting across the feelings and position of Labour.
The mass rally would
begin next Tuesday in Abuja while the various state councils and affiliate
civil society groups would follow at different dates.
With the bill passing
its first reading in both chambers of the National Assembly, Oshiomhole said it
is clear that the government is determined to push it through.
He explained that the NLC is convinced that the
proposed law would do a lot of damage to workers’ rights and to the
country’s democratic project.
Describing it as
undemocratic and unconstitutional as well as a recipe for industrial crisis,
Oshiomhole faulted the government’s argument that the intention is to
democratise the NLC.
“When the
Supreme Court delivered judgment asking INEC (Independent National Electoral
Commission) to register more political parties and roll back its restrictive
conditionalities, INEC did not need to deregister the PDP (Peoples Democratic
Party) and the other two existing parties before registering new political
parties”, he argued.
According to him, the
NLC is convinced that the bill is neither in the national interest nor would it
promote democracy; but a punishment meted out to Labour for its “public
service unionism”, particularly the spearheading of campaigns intended to
warn the government against economic policies capable of fuelling inflation.
The NLC also resolved
to mobilise against the Private Members’ Bill sponsored by Senators
Dalhatu Tafida and Martins Yellowe seeking to outlaw strikes in the health and
educational sectors as well empowering the President to proscribe any union
where their members embarked on strike.
“This is not the
democracy Nigerians struggled for. It appears there is an attempt to turn
Nigeria into a slave camp where the right of workers cannot be discussed or
where they cannot exercise their right to protest.
“NLC cannot fold
its hands and watch as this country is being turned into a huge prison where,
even the right of prisoners cannot be discussed”, Oshiomhole said.
Wondering why the bill
has not sought improved conditions of service for workers, Oshiomhole added:
“Most of the hospitals have become killing centres, where even mortuaries
do not work. Yet, the sponsors of the bill did not make any attempt to make
Nigerians have access to medicare.
“How can you have a society that lays claim to
civilisation, or a government that lays claim to integrity, but does not
respect the right of workers to be paid wages for which they have
worked?”
|
