By Moses Ebosele, ebosele@hotmail.com —
Member of the Nigeria Union of Railway Workers (NUR) and Senior Staff Association (SSA) NRC Branch, have concluded plans to embark on a 3-day warning strike beginning Thursday, 18th November through Saturday, 20th November 2021.
A joint statement sent to City Business News on Friday, was signed by President General, NUR, Comrade Innocent Ajiji, President SSA, NRC branch, Comrade Aliyu Mainasara, Secretary-General, NUR, Comrade Segun Esan and Secretary SSA, NRC branch, Comrade Kadiri Jibrin.
In the statement titled: “NOTICE AND DIRECTIVE TO EMBARK ON 3-DAY WARNING STRIKE NATIONWIDE“, the leadership of the union explained that a joint meeting held in Lagos on Wednesday, 10th November 2021 “where the welfare of the workers of the Corporation as put before the Management were taken through exhaustively critical discourse and review, has finally unanimously resolved:
i. That all the district organs (DWCs) of the NUR and SSA should, as a matter of expedience, summon a general meeting of all the workers of their districts on Monday, 15th November 2021 at exactly 10.00 a.m prompt and, in unambiguous terms, notify the entire workers of the commencement of a 3-day warning strike beginning from midnight prior to Thursday, 18th through Saturday, 20th November 2021;
ii. That the DWCs of both the NUR and SSA should fuse up, resume, and function as their Districts’ Strike Action Committee prior to the commencement of the 3-day warning strike action and throughout the period of the strike and shall ensure full and total compliance of all the workers with the strike action as declared by the joint leadership of the two in-house unions;
iii. That the Chairmen and the Secretaries shall be solely responsible for the sitrep (situation report) of the days of the strike action and shall escalate same to the national secretariat of the union for its information and necessary action.
iv. That the strike activities, whichever way each district wants to implement it in form of programmes but must include fervent intercessory prayers for the success of the struggles, should be within the premises of the Corporation and must be essentially orderly, well-organized, and devoid of any destruction or violation of railway assets, our assets;
v. That all the workers must comply and stay out of their offices but gather together behind their district union leaders to participate actively, peacefully, and consistently in the whole days of the strike without any fear or let;
vi. That this planned strike action is just to send a warning signal to the right quarters to heed our demands for improved welfare and standard condition of service and may be followed with a protracted strike action plan;
vii. That the district leadership of the unions should always await further directives from Lagos from time to time as may be deemed expedient by the national officers of the unions;
viii. That every district must comply with this notice as any act prejudicial to this notice will be viewed very seriously and strictly by the leadership of the unions.
City Business News reports that the union, recently, threatened to embark on strike over welfare and their inability to take over the driving of the new Lagos-Ibadan trains from the Chinese contractors.
“The unions have demanded from the management to collect the driving of the LITS from the Chinese who, in total aberration to the norms and ethos governing train driving in Nigeria, still hold on to driving the LITS trains beyond the warranty/guaranty period,” said the workers.
They also urged the NRC management “to ensure that the Chinese are barred from driving the LITS with immediate effect and a new regime of warranty/guaranty of the LITS service be demanded.”
Making reference to welfare, the said:“The unions, without mincing words, expressed utmost displeasure and regrets over the manner the Hon. Minister of Transportation has been so unconcerned with the demand of the workers for enhanced salary.
“The unions recalled that the agitation for enhanced salary has been on for the past six years and the Hon. minister has tactically evaded all entreaties of the leadership of the two in-house unions to meet him on the plight of the workers as occasioned by the poor salary regime that is obtainable in the corporation and which remains the poorest salary regime ever under the federal ministry of transport.
“The unions have declared that tactics and strategies would be changed towards achieving all-important salary enhancement for the workers of the corporation as peaceful and constructive methodologies explored by the Unions have failed.”
“As of today and now, the Corporation has no standard condition of service and this we have pointed out to the management with the matching demand that the reworked standard condition of service which was placed before the Board should be reviewed and approved for applicability without any further delay. The management has promised to escalate it to the Board with a memo soon.
“We have requested individual insurance for all the train crew, passengers and the entire workers of the corporation who may be exposed to such deadly hazards in the course of their duties. This demand is made without any prejudice to the existing group life assurance scheme (GLAS) for the workers the status of which is still lurked in obscurity to the unions.”
