The leadership of the organised labour in Kogi State has urged workers not to be intimidated by the alleged sack threat coming from the state government due to its plans to embark on industrial action later this week, Our Kogi State Correspondent reports.
The labour unions have slated September 22, 2017 to begin strike in Kogi State over failure of the government to pay all their outstanding salaries and arrears.
In a statement jointly issued by the Secretary, Nigeria labour Congress (NLC) Comrade Olakunle Faniyi, Secretary, Trade Union Congress (TUC) Comrade Kolawole James and Secretary, Joint Public Sector Negotiating Council (JPSNC) Comrade Abubakar, the unions said the government has began her antics of threats and intimidation of workers, brandishing the weapons of sack and the over-used but ineffective 'no-work-no-pay' slogan, all of which have no place in any civilised setting.
While thanking Kogi workers for their continuous steadfastness and courage for the emancipation struggle, the union noted in dismay that the present administration in the state has brought workers down to the lowest level.
The Statement reads in part: “Is it true that Kogi State government is threatening to proscribe NLC and TUC if workers embark on strike come 22nd September 2017? As we all know, whoever that is down does not fear fall anyone, this government has brought workers down to the lowest level and as such we fear neither fall of sack nor non-payment of salary. We encourage you to discountenance all the threats and intimidation being dished out by the officers of this government and remain focused and determined to carry this struggle to its logical conclusion. Be resolute and defend your jobs now or never. We urge you to disregard all the manouvering of government aimed at using flimsy and irrelevant innuendoes to take attentions away from the core foundation of our agitation. We are resolute in saying NO to the casualization of the Kogi state workforce through the clock-in-clock-out policy, we REJECT completely the attempt of government to use a hoarse contributory pension scheme to further impoverish workers, and we INSIST that government pay the salaries/pension of workers/pensioners who have been denied salaries/pension for the past 21 months and other categories of arrears ranging from 2 to 13 months and we DEMAND the stoppage of percentage payment of salaries to primary school teachers and local government workers.”
The union also called on the State Government to channel her energies towards meeting all the demands of workers and stop dissipating energy on the status of signatories of thier bulletins.
“For the avoidance of doubt, we wish to make it abundantly clear to government that nothing, other than the meeting of all our demands will stop Kogi workers from down tooling as from Friday 22nd September 2017.We urge you as usual to continue to discountenance the threat and intimidation of government, remain law abiding, be prayerful, be counting down to Friday 22nd September 2017 as you await further directives”, the statement added.
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