Labour Replies Obasanjo on Labour Bill
As you might be aware, the Government of President Olusegun Obasanjo has decided to deregister the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and crush the Trade Unions.
As part of this move, a bill has been sent to the National Assembly to amend the Trade Unions Act. The President has sent, withdrawn and resent the bill in an attempt to slip it through without your knowledge or while your attention is diverted.
The Government sees the NLC as the spokesperson of the people, defender of the helpless and champion of the common good. This is a correct analysis. So in order to justify this anti-people bill, the Administration has resorted to disinformation and deception.
First it claimed that President Obasanjo is the creator of the NLC. This is false. The NLC was created on December 19, 1975 when the then existing four Labour centers: the United Labour Congress (ULC), the Nigeria Trade Union Congress (NTUC), the Nigeria Workers Council (NWC) and the Labour Unity Front (LUF) voluntarily dissolved themselves to form the NLC. The first elected President of the NLC was Wahab Goodluck, while Ezekiel Odeyemi was the General Secretary.
The Murtala- Obasanjo military regime banned the NLC. The new NLC leaders consisting of Wahab Goodluck, Micheal Imoudu and nine others were also banned for life from trade union activities.
Three years later, precisely on February 28, 1978 in the hope to "unite and control" the trade unions, the General Obasanjo regime unbanned the NLC. So how can the NLC be a creation of General Obasanjo?
Secondly, Government claims that since the NLC came into existence during military rule, it is therefore undemocratic. This is illogical. The fact that the present Obasanjo Administration was born under military rule does not make it undemocratic. Nor does it therefore mean that it has to be disbanded.
Again, the Obasanjo administration argues that the NLC is a monopoly that must be deregulated. This as you know is false. Apart from the NLC, there are two other existing and functional Labour centers in the country. They are the Trade Union Congress (TUC) and the Congress of Free Trade Union (CFTU). These three Labour centers jointly led the June 2004 strike and protest against the hike in the prices of petroleum products.
Again on July 15, 2004, the three Labour centers jointly held a workshop in Abuja on the new Pension Act.
The truth is that the NLC is not opposed to multiple Labour centers. What we are opposed to is Government's attempt to impose Labour centers deliberately weaken trade unions, ban strikes and deregister the NLC.
NLC's response to the bill
The Executive bill:
1. Says trade unionism should be "voluntary". The truth is that trade unionism has been voluntary. Under the existing trade union Act, a worker can contract out of the union. What government is actually trying to do is to deregister all workers and ask them to re-apply for union membership through their employers.
2. Provides that a worker must give "express consent" before his union due can be deducted. The worker already consents, but what Government hopes to do is ask each worker to make written statement through the employer that his union due be deducted. This way, it hopes to intimidate some workers out of the union. If a person voluntary belongs to a union, paying union dues is a basic responsibility of the individual, so why ask the same worker to go through the bureaucracy of writing to the employer to give the authorization which is already implied.
3. States that even after the worker has voluntarily decided to belong to the union and given his/her "express consent" that union dues be deducted, the employer who makes the deduction should pay the union only if they signs a "No Strike" clause. So why an employer should be given power to seize union funds? Is this Democracy or Dictatorship?
The right to strike; the worker's right to work or refuse to work is a fundamental human right. The United Nations, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and our country's constitution all back these rights. They all reject forced labour.
This entire section of the bill also offends Section 40 of our Constitution which gives Nigerians the right to freedom of association without interference. Since we are not horses, mules or cows who are forced to work, it is the natural right of a human being to decide to work or not to work.
4. Decrees that there can be no free or voluntary formation of Labour centers. It empowers the Minister of Labour appointed by the President to decide what Labour centers can be formed. So what brand of "Democracy" is this, that a man who does not belong to any union would decide the fate of unions? What is more worrisome in this is that this section is similar to those in the draconian Labour Decrees 4 and 26 of 1996 made by the late General Sani Abach in a his vain attempt to emasculate Nigerians.
5. After seeking to impose a "No strike" clause, in a contradictory manner says that there can be strikes only after two-thirds of the workers in a ballot agree to go on strike. The hope of Government is that it would be too costly and time consuming to organize ballots for workers whenever there is the need for a strike. It also hopes that like general elections, its agents will be able to rig the ballot.
Previous military dictators have tested this precondition for strikes, not just in our country but also in many African, Asian and Latin American countries and they have always failed. As we stated earlier, the right to work or not to work is an inalienable right.
6. Finally came to its real purpose when it provides that " the Registrar (of trade unions) shall remove from the register the Nigeria Labour Congress as the only Labour organization in Nigeria" As stated above, while the NLC supports multiple Labour centers, it should be voluntary and not Government imposition. More fundamentally, we do not accept that in order to register more Labour centers, the NLC must first be deregistered. When more political parties were registered two years ago, Government and INEC did not first deregister the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) or any other party that was in existence. What was simply done was to register new parties in addition to existing ones. So new Labour centers can exist without the NLC being deregistered
But this is the main motive of the bill. The administration hopes that by deregistering the NLC and seizing the trade unions, it can rule over a conquered people. It hopes that crushing Labour, its glaring failures on issues such as hunger, shelter, education, electricity, roads, insecurity, growing mass unemployment, corrupting, fuel prices and poverty can be swept under the carpet.
It hopes that with the NLC gone, it will no longer face challenges over its plans to retrench 40% of the workforce, or impose new pension Act and its ill-planned monetisation policy. It hopes that a Nigeria without the NLC will meant it an continue its 10 - 15% taxation of workers salaries and its endless deductions from wages.
As a people, we must collectively ensure that this administration fails in its bid to repress the Labour movement. If this Government comes for the workers today and we say nothing nor lift a finger, then you won't be safe as tomorrow, it will come after you.
Don't forget that this executive is steeped in vendetta and vengeance. To protect and defend our hard won freedom and Democracy, to ensure a better tomorrow, we call on you to join hands with Labour to resist the evil sections of this bill.
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