PRESS STATEMENT
We of the Socialist Party
of Nigeria (SPN) solidarise with workers of Benue state under the aegis of the
state branches of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC)
on their ongoing indefinite strike action. The workers have gone on strike over
the callous deductions from their salaries by the Gabriel Suswam-led PDP government.
This is aside the fact that the state government has not implemented the N18,000
national minimum wage.
We condemn in the
strongest terms the obnoxious anti-worker policies of the government. We note
that the Suswam administration is notoriously anti-poor and anti-worker. We
recall the state chapter of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) just recently
called off an eight-month long strike over similar issues bordering on poor pay
among other issues.
We join the striking
workers to demand that the Benue state government stop deductions of salaries
of workers and refund the illegal deductions. The government must also pay the
transport allowances, which have been outstanding for the past three years. We
also call for the implementation of the minimum wage as demanded by the
workers. We call for the payment of pension of retirees in the state as equally
demanded by the workers.
According to the
media reports, the bank workers in the state also joined the strike, thereby
paralyzing commercial activities in the state. This shows the enormity of the
mass anger against the Suswam government. We call on the leadership of the
state branches of the NLC and TUC, who are spearheading the struggle to
mobilize mass actions in support of the strike in order to generate huge
pressure that could force the government to meet the demands.
We call on the
national leadership of the NLC and TUC to equally extend their solidarity to
the struggle. The struggle and demands of Benue state workers are similar to
that of workers nationwide. This further stresses the need for the national
leadership of the NLC and TUC to revisit the struggles of minimum wage by
calling a one day general strike and mass protests.
What is
overwhelmingly clear from the predicament of workers in Benue state nay Nigeria
is the urgent need for the workers' movement to forge a genuine independent
working people's political alternative to wrest power from the current band of
marauders in power. The initiative of the SPN is a striking example in this
direction. We call on workers, students and youth in Benue state and nationally
to join the SPN and build it as a mass alternative to the main looting parties
in power. Also importantly, workers must strive to reclaim their trade unions
and rebuild it as democratic fighting mass organisations, whose resources can
be mobilized to truly defend the interest of workers and build a broader mass
working people's political alternative.
Signed
Segun Sango
National Chairperson
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