Somtochukwu

The Organised Labour in Rivers State has called on other unions, associations and stakeholders to mobilise their members for the planned protest billed for Tuesday, September 8th.

The labour union also called on all allied unions to brace up for the strike action that will follow the protest should the state government fail to attend to its grievances.

Chairpersons of the NLC and TUC, Comrade Beatrice Itubo and Austin Jonah in a joint statement issued in Port Harcourt said the court order restraining the planned protest and strike action is false and a manipulation from few individuals who are beneficiaries of the anti-workers disposition of the present administration in the state.

Itubo and Jonah called on workers to disregard the said Court order and come out in their numbers to register their complaints.

Comrade ltubo and Austin Jonah while lamenting that most pensioners have died because of none payment of their gratuities after serving the state meritoriously.

They said “since the inception of this present administration, some workers have remained on one grade level without promotion.

“There have been no employment opportunities for Rivers people and that the state government has refused to implement the new national minimum wage.”

In the meantime; the Rivers State Government has accused the State Chapter of the Nigerian Labour Congress( NLC ) of colluding with its national leadership to force industrial action on workers in the State.

Briefing journalists in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Prof. Zacchaeus Adangor said NLC is abandoning a subsisting court case reserved for judgement on September 29, 2020 to embark on its threatened current strike.

Prof. Adangor while briefing newsmen at Government House Port Harcourt explained that on the 16th March 2020, the Organised Labour issued seven days notice for an indefinite strike but failed as scheduled for midnight 23rd March 2020.

“The Rivers State Council of the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria failed or neglected to fulfil the condition precedent for the declaration of the strike action as prescribed in Section 4,6 and 18(1)(a) of the Trade Dispute Act, Cap T8, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.

“Surprisingly, while suit No. NICN/PH/41/2020 is still pending and the Interim Order of Injunction issued therein still subsisting, the defendants acting in collusion and concert with the national leadership of the Organised Labour (NLC and TUC) issued another threat of a fresh strike in Rivers State based on the same reasons,” he stated.

National President of NLC, Comrade Ayuba Wabba and his counterpart in TUC, Quadri Olaleye in a joint media briefing accused Governor Nyesom Wike’s Government of taking workers welfare for granted since his assumption of office in 2015.

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