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 Daily
Independent Online.
* Friday, July 02, 2004.
Presidency can’t break workers’ unity - NLC
• World body accuses Obasanjo of vindictive action against Labour
By
Bassey Udo
Snr Correspondent (Abuja)
and
Bimbo Kesington
Labour Reporter (Lagos)
Pension
reform, report of the recently suspended national strike and government
plans to decentralise trade unions were the three issues that topped the
agenda at a meeting of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in Abuja on
Thursday.
Those
in attendance expressed confidence that government might can never break
the unity of workers since the decision to come together under one
umbrella is “a thing of the mind”.
As the
meeting held, additional international support came for the NLC over
attempts to muzzle it by Aso Rock.
Its
Deputy National President Joseph Akinlaja told the Central Working
Committee (CWC) that the strike achieved its objective of forcing the
government to reverse fuel prices to the old levels following an order of
an Abuja High Court.
Although
compliance with the order for petroleum products marketers to revert to
the old prices is still not been fully done in most parts of the country,
he said the meeting deliberated on the report of all affiliate bodies to
determine the next line of action.
The
Brussels-based International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU)
described the plan to decentralise the NLC as a vindictive action against
Labour over its unflinching opposition to incessant petroleum products
price hikes.
It
made its view known in a letter to President Olusegun Obasanjo on
Thursday, just as the NLC, an affiliate of ICFTU, said at its meeting
that the proposed reforms are “totally in bad faith and a product of
bitterness”.
ICFTU
expressed surprise that the committee set up by the government in
conjunction with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to review
Nigeria’s Labour laws to conform with international standards is yet to
take off and urged the President to withdraw the proposed bill and allow
the committee to do its work.
“As a
leading statesman on the African continent and a key proponent of NEPAD
(New Partnership for African Development) which preaches good governance
encompassing openness, transparency, due process and active civil society
participation in the development process, the international community
looks to you, Mr. President, to provide an example of respect of
divergence of opinion and Labour rights and activism, which are hallmarks
of a sound democracy”, Guy Ryder, ICFTU General Secretary said.
Reiterating
at the meeting in Abuja part of its grouse against the government,
Akinlaja said the NLC had on
more than one occasion pointed out to lawmakers areas needing reform in
the pension law as “only a sick person requires the doctor’s attention,
not a healthy person”.
According
to him, the Pension Reform Bill, as passed by the National Assembly, will
create more problems than solve, because extending the law to private
sector arrangements, which are better run than the civil service scheme,
is fraught with problems.
“There
is nothing wrong with the National Social Insurance Fund as is presently
run. To bring another arrangement with the reform is courting confusion
for the nation” Akinlaja said.
In his
view, plans by the government to decentralise the NLC is another area
capable of fomenting a crisis in the country, adding that though the
National Assembly has denied receiving the bill from President Olusegun
Obasanjo, the NLC is aware that the issue is being discussed at the
caucus of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) with the objective of
taking Labour unawares.
But
Akinlaja stressed that it would be difficult for the government to break
the unity of NLC through subterfuge, adding: “The unity of Labour cannot
be broken or banned by law.
The decision to come together under one umbrella is a thing of the
mind. The reprisal bill to resurrect what we considered long dead and
buried will not help the government”.
He
accused the government of refusing to release the report of the joint
committee set up in February to assess the impact of the deregulation
policy, saying it is unfortunate that Abuja would spend resources to set
up such a committee just to buy time.
Other
resolutions at the CWC meeting included an appeal to Obasanjo and the
National Assembly to reconsider the long-term interest of the country in
attempting to muzzle trade unionism.
“In
enlightened societies laws are not made out of vengeance or out of anger.
They will reflect on the effect of destroying civil society. There cannot
be democracy without an active and virile civil society”, the NLC said.
Adding
his voice in Lagos, Labour lawyer Jiti Ogunye said Obasanjo acted
constitutionally in attempting to reform the Trade Union Act that created
the NLC but that the motive behind it is undemocratic.
Said
he: “In principle, the government is right by trying to go back to the
era where industrial unions were free to affiliate to whatever Labour
centre they choose but the motive of Obasanjo is a different
consideration altogether.
“Going
by ILO conventions, there is no basis for forcing worker organisations to
work together in one central Labour organisation’.
He,
however, added that the plan is facing strong opposition because “what we
are witnessing has little to do with reforming trade unions but the
amendment which Obasanjo seeks is a vindictive strategy meant to
dis-empower Labour and make it impotent in the face of the anti-worker
policies being implemented by him”.
In
his view, motive in governance is as important as action. “It is the
motive that determines almost 90 percent of what government does. So
reforming the Trade Union Act being advanced by the executive is not
something that is isolated from the motive of the government and, in this
case, the motive is bad”.
He
added: “Nigerians we recall that after the amendment of the Trade Union
Act in 1978, the military government of Babangida, in 1986, further
amended the Act following a crisis against the government, by deleting
the ASUU (Academic Staff Union of Universities) from the list of
affiliates of the NLC because it was felt that ASUU was the intellectual
power house of Labour”.
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