Strike: Workers Must Be Allowed To Exercise Their Right – NLC

• NLC President Joe Ajaero asserts Nigerian workers’ right to strike and questions potential arrests or imprisonment for non-working individuals
• Ajaero criticizes the takeover of the National Union of Road Transport Workers’ secretariat and gives the police 24 hours to withdraw

Joe Ajaero, President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), has stated that Nigerian workers must be allowed to exercise their right to strike.

He made the remarks while commenting on the union’s two-day warning strike, which began on Tuesday, September 5, in protest of the Federal Government’s failure to address the challenges caused by the removal of fuel subsidies.

He stated that union members would exercise their right to know whether any worker who chose not to work would be arrested or imprisoned.

When asked about the Industrial Court order prohibiting the union from going on strike, Ajaero stated, “I don’t think the matter has anything to do with court.”

The first step is to take over the secretariat of the National Union of Road Transport Workers.

They have an authority from the Villa to take over the leadership. It’s unfortunate and even worse than the coup in Niger for you to use the police to take over the secretariat of an industrial union. We therefore give the police 24 hours to pull out to allow them resolve their crisis.

The second step is to engage the labour over the industrial action in relation to the suffering of Nigerian workers. We have given them a long notice.

We have given them a warning signal that after the period we are going to embark on an action and we are going to express that right of the worker to wake up and say he he will not go to work. It is a right that you cannot legislate into its existence.

People have the right to work or not to work. We will express it to see whether anybody who decides not to work would be arrested or imprisoned.