President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero, has said that Nigerian workers must be allowed to express their right by going on strike.
He stated this while commenting on the two-day warning strike the union declared, beginning on Tuesday, September 5, in protest against the Federal Government’s failure to address the challenges caused by the removal of fuel subsidy.
He said members of the union would express their right to see whether any worker who decides not to work would be arrested or imprisoned.
When asked about the order issued by the Industrial Court stopping the union from embarking on any strike action, Ajaero said, “I don’t think the matter has anything to do with court. The first thing is takeover of the National Union of Road Transport Workers secretariat.
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“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.”
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