…says nobody can compromise its ranks, to picket CAC over anti-labour practices
OSAS EMMANUEL
President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero, has vowed to reinvigorate the fighting spirit of the Labour movement against all odds and better the lot of workers, especially as the incoming administration gets inaugurated.
Ajaero vowed to restore the Labour movement to its glory days where it served as a fighting machinery against injustice and oppression of the workforce.
Ajaero made pledge yesterday when he led a delegation from its headquarters on a familarisation visit to the Amalgamated Union of Public Corporations, Civil Service Technical and Recreational Services Employees (AUPCTRE) in Abuja.
According to him, the Labour movement have been weakened to the point where state councils and affiliate unions no longer have the guts to fight against injustice meted out on them.
The NLC President, said he doesn’t care whatever name he is branded, he is out to reinvigorate the fighting spirit of the congress and better the lot of workers, especially as the incoming administration gets inaugurated.
He lamented that most state governors were defaulting in the payment of the N30,000 minimum wage, yet the victims (workforce), are too scared to complain or raise objection for prompt action.
According to him, since assumption of office as NLC President, he has made enemies with some state governors over his insistence that the right thing be done.
“For me, we want to make NLC a fighting machine, if you step on our toes within 24 hours we start fighting you, some people will say Ajaero is a mad man it doesn’t matter.
“Most of the state governors have not been paying the national minimum wage, a state like Anambra – a Permanent Secretary is receiving N120, 000 or thereabout, that’s too poor, in Ebonyi the governor accused me that since I emerged as President of NLC, I have disrupted his once peaceful state.
“In Imo where I come from, the government have cloned the entire executive of NLC, hence, they disrupted our state congress there,” he revealed.
Earlier, General Secretary of AUPCTRE, Comrade Sikiru Waheed decried the actions of management of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), noting that the government agency was anti labour in its operations.
Waheed who stood in for the National President of AUPCTRE, Com Benjamin Anthony, accused the CAC management of posting all executive officials of the union out of Abuja.
He equally accused the management of marginalising AUPCTRE workers in its employ, branding all of them as junior workers and shortchanging the union of their check-off dues.
Waheed also faulted the bestowing of a fellowship award by the Micheal Imoudu Centre Legislative Studies on the CAC Registrar, threatening that in due course they would mobilise to protest such action.
While responding to the complaints, Ajaero said, “On CAC, tell us when you want us to start this fight, because without the unions there is no NLC, there is fear of late that unions no longer fight, or to sustain a fight, if you stop fighting unions will go into extinction. Begging your oppressor will only embolden your oppressor.
“Regarding the award to the CAC, we have to do a letter to two of our members serving on the board of Micheal Imoudu Centre Labour Studies. If they are not doing well we can recall them. Two people representing the NLC. Luckily one of us is the Director General of that body”.
On the leadership tussle in the Labour Party, Ajaero said the labour movement has gone political, hence will not shy away from stopping elements trying to disrupt the operations of the party.
He went down memory lane detailing how the Labour Party was formed from scratch, insisting that under no circumstances will it allow dissenting forces to scuttle the party.
“People were saying why did we invite Peter Obi to our May Day festivities, at the Eagle Square and I ask them, is it not those who identify with the Labour movement we will identify with? Some people even told Obi to stop going to visit former President Olusegun Obasanjo, but to identify and visit all the affiliate labour unions in the country because they are the owners of the Labour party,” he stated.
