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Minimum Wage: Oyo State Workers Should Be Resolute-The National Labour Leadership Must Lead Nationwide Struggle

The Campaign for Democratic and Workers’ Rights (CDWR) calls on the workers of Oyo State to be resolute on their demands for the implement the minimum wage by the Abiola Ajimobi-led government  as agreed with them by the immediate past administration of Alao Akala.

The Campaign for Democratic and Workers’ Rights (CDWR) calls on the workers of Oyo State to be resolute on their demands for the implement the minimum wage by the Abiola Ajimobi-led government  as agreed with them by the immediate past administration of Alao Akala.

Given the pressure from monarchs and propaganda of the state government, it appears the state leadership of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has begun to waiver on the demand.  The state NLC called off the planned strike scheduled to begin on Monday June 13 as agreed at a workers Congress on Saturday June 11. Though, according to This Day Newspaper, the workers were ready for a showdown with the government as from Monday going by the tone of the workers contributions at the congress (This Day June 13, 2011), the leadership is still wavering.

This Day newspaper quoted the state chairman, Bashiru Olanrewaju to have told the paper that, “We are just emerging from an emergency congress and we resolved not to go on strike as earlier declared. We agreed that we should take the May salary based on the table of the former governor and negotiate with the government on the payment of succeeding salaries. Almost all stakeholders in the state, especially, traditional rulers and religious leaders have met with us and pleaded that we should see reason with the government position all which we considered at the congress (This day June 13, 2011).

This is a clear indication that the labour leadership is prepared to settle for something less than the figures already signed with the state government. This is unfortunate. The workers should have gone ahead with action as a warning strike lasting for a day or two to send a strong note of warning to Ajimobi that they are resolute in ensuring that their demand for better pays are met.  

Before he was sworn in, Ajimobi had kicked against the new minimum wage querying the propriety of Alao Akala to sign the agreement.

It is correct to question the sincerity of Alao-Akala who in the best parts of his administration did not have reputation of implementing national agreements with workers only to suddenly show unusual willingness to respect similar agreement when he had been voted out of office.  The schools and hospitals in the state were closed down for several months as a result of the blatant refusal of Alao Akala to implement TSS and CONMMES national agreements signed with teachers and doctors respectively and approved National Salary and Wages Commission. Indeed, the medical doctors in the state under the auspices of Association of Medical and Dental Officers just suspended a seven-month strike on June 6 2011 after Akala had left office. 

But the insincerity of Akala is not enough for Ajimobi to deny workers their entitlement to better pays if he is truly people-friendly and different from Akala as he has made the people of the state to believe. What is expected of Ajimobi is to simply point out the hypocrisy of Akala and warmly accept to pay the minimum wage as already agreed and signed.  It should be noted that the implementation of new national minimum wage is not a favour by government to workers but an obligation having become a law.

The attitude of Ajimobi towards the issue of minimum wage has further shown that beyond impression being created, the ACN is not fundamentally different from PDP in terms of programme and policies. The people of Oyo state should therefore be prepared for poor workers welfare, neo-liberal attacks on education and health care as well as infrastructure neglects as obtained in Akala administration. The labour leadership and genuine pro-masses organizations should be prepared to identify with the daily struggles and demands of the working people in the state for better living and working conditions in the next four years.

Governor Ajimobi has also echoed the demand of the state governments for increase in the federal allocation to the states. We of the CDWR support the agitation for the revenue allocation to the state to be increased. But this must not be a condition before the new minimum wage is implemented. The state governors and a large army of political office holders both elected and appointed receive outrageous jumbo salaries and allowances without calling for increase in revenue. We hold strongly that the states have capacity to pay the new minimum wage but for corruption, wastages, over-bloated political offices and outrageous jumbo pays for political office holders. We challenge the state governments to open up their books for thorough scrutiny by elected committee of workers and relevant professionals in order to know the true state of their finances, how funds are managed and what the priorities are.      

We hold that the failure of the national leadership of NLC to intervene in solidarity or a centrally coordinated action on minimum wage isolates the struggle in Oyo state and exposes the state leadership of NLC to pressures from traditional and political leaders in the state. Besides, the state leadership did not carry out any form of mass sensitization to mobilize public support for the botched action. We call on the state leadership of NLC to stand on the existing agreement and issue a two-week ultimatum to the government to implement the agreement, failure of which the workers would embark on a 48-hour warning strike. The period of two weeks should be used for a series of mass activities like public sensitization, symposium and rallies where workers’ leaders will present and circulate facts and figures on the capacity of the state to pay the minimum wage as agreed with the last administration. The national leadership of NLC must play a very active role in this struggle as the defeat of workers in Oyo state will embolden other state governors who have already stated that they cannot pay the minimum wage.

 

Victor Osakwe

National Secretary     

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