Nigerian workers unions, labor movements, and activists in Lagos today marched against two polythene manufacturing companies for treating their workers shabbily, including preventing them from belonging to unions. The management of the picketed companies reportedly signed agreements to install unionism in order to begin treating their workers with dignity.
Nigerian workers unions, labor movements, and activists in Lagos today marched against two polythene manufacturing companies for treating their workers shabbily, including preventing them from belonging to unions. The management of the picketed companies reportedly signed agreements to install unionism in order to begin treating their workers with dignity.
Using the occasion of the annual International Workers Day Against Casual Labor, sanctioned by the International Labor Organization (ILO) and marked every October 7, the activists marched from the Textile Labor House on the Acme Road in Ogba, Lagos, focusing on two companies. “We ensured that the management of the companies signed agreements to permit workers to belong to workers union,” one of the participants in the protests told SaharaReporters.
The protests were led by leaders of the Nigerian Labor Congress, represented by the National Vice President, Isa Aremu, and members of the Joint Action Front (JAF), led by its secretary, Abiodun Aremu.
Workers at the two picketed companies said they had been treated as slaves. Some of the workers who spoke with SaharaTV said it was their happiest day, being a day of freedom from enslavement.
“They sack people anyhow. We just cannot talk, otherwise, we are fired,” said one of the workers at Majestic Sac, a factory that deals in the production of polythene products.
“None of us has his employment confirmed yet. They do not want to recognize our right to proper employment. They keep us, use the best of our productive strength and [have us] resign us at will,” said another worker.
One other source said, “Any time a worker gets an injury in the factory, they only give him first aid and abandon him. If the injury does not allow him to carry on with work, then he is sacked.”
The leaders of the protests said that the denial of rights to union membership was one deplorable way employers reserve the power to haphazardly “hire and fire” employees, holding them under subjugation.
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