JUST IN; Workers ignore Labour directives as NLC strike fails to hold
The strike declared by organised labour failed to hold in Imo State yesterday.
Protesting the assault on Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) President Joe Ajaero last week, the NLC and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) declared strike in Imo from midnight yesterday.
They threatened to spread it nationwide from Tuesday if their demands were not met.
But at the state Secretariat along Port Harcourt Road, Owerri, government workers were seen at their various duty posts.
Private companies, banks, transporters and other categories of people went about their normal activities.
Schools were open across the state.
At the Sam Mbakwe Airport, there was no disruption of operations. Flights came in from Lagos, Abuja and other places. There were also outbound flights.
A source said there was no disruption of flights, adding that many indigenes arrived the state for the poll billed for Saturday through the airport.
But, the state had been plunged into darkness for the seventh day, due to stoppage of electricity supply at Egbu Transmission Station, leaving the state with no energy to distribute to Enugu Electricity Distribution Company PLC (EEDC) customers.
EDDC spokesman Emeka Ezeh said: “The union shutting down our source of supply at Egbu Transmission Station, leaving us with no energy to distribute to our customers.”
“We regret the inconveniences this situation must have caused our customers, and we hope that the issue will be resolved soon.”
Division in Labour movement
There is division among workers in the state over the proposed strike.
A faction of the union loyal to Ajaero, led by Comrade Ugochukeu Ofoegbu, had in a circular directed the workers to embark on the industrial action.
The faction said it was opposed to the conduct of the governorship election on Saturday, unless its demands were met.
The state government chided the faction for its hardline position, saying that the strike was politically motivated.
However, another faction led by Comrade Phillip Nwansi, and recognised by the state government, issued a counter-directive that there should be no strike.
Why Ofoegbu told The Nation that the strike began at midnight yesterday, Nwansi faction said workers had not down tools.
Ofoegbu said: “The strike began in the state at midnight and will continue until November 14 when the national strike will commence and we will not stop until our demands are met.”
Nwansi did not pick the calls put across to him, but a source close to the labour office in the state said the workers were not on strike in the state.
According to the source, Nwansi “is controlling the majority of the workers in the state and we are directed not to go on strike.”
Our goal is to scuttle Imo election, says NLC
NLC said its goal was to stop the poll scheduled for Saturday.
“Would the world end if the election doesn’t hold in Imo?”, Comrade Uchenna Ekwe, its Head of International Relations, asked during a national television programme.
When reminded by one of the panelists that the union would be violating the constitution if it disrupts the election, Ekwe said it was not significant.
He said: “We don’t believe anything good would come out of the election.”
Ekwe said NLC was not interested in the timing of the strike, adding that the goal is to mount pressure on Governor Hope Uzodimma to accede to its demands.
On the subsisting court order barring the union from embarking on any strike, Ekwe said NLC would not recognise any interim injunction.
