The Abia State chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has started an indefinite strike after the state refused to pay the backlog of unpaid salaries and pension arrears in the state.
The strike was announced during a demonstration by union members in the state capital of Umuahia on Tuesday.
Chris Onyeka, the state’s assistant general secretary of the union, who was in charge of organizing the workers’ protest, claimed that the action was a result of the state government’s refusal to follow Joe Ajero’s order, the national president of the NLC, to pay the arrears in salaries owed to the workers in Abia.
He claimed that the NLC’s national leadership, led by Ajero, is concerned about the welfare of workers and will not sit by helplessly as the governor Okezie Ikpeazu-led government toil with the welfare of its people in the state.
He also accused the state government of threatening them rather than calling them for a dialogue.
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He said, “Our national president wrote to the Abia state government on the need to pay Abia workers their arrears of salaries, but the state government did not act on the letter.
“The state government was given 14 days ultimatum to address the problems associated with payment of salaries owed Abia workers and the ultimatum expired on Monday, February 28, 2023, hence the indefinite strike to press home our demand.”
“Our union gave the state government 14 days to address the problems associated with payment of salaries owed to Abia workers and it expired on Monday, hence the indefinite strike to press home Abia workers’ demand.”
“The Abia government instead of sitting down with us to see how to resolve the problems, they are resorting to the intimidation of workers, but no amount of intimidation will make us stop the indefinite strike”.