Saturday, July 19, 2014

Nigerian Railway Unions Shelve Planned Industrial Strike
Nigerian railway line.
by OLUSEGUN KOIKI
Nigerian National Mirror
July 19, 2014

The planned industrial action of the Joint Central Working Committee of the Nigeria Union of Railway Workers, NUR, and the Senior Staff Association, SSA, of Nigerian Railway Corporation has been suspended.

The industrial strike, which was expected to commence nationwide on the 28th of this month has been shelved indefinitely to allow more discussions between the unions and the management.

It would be recalled that the unions had, in a petition dated 30th June 2014, issued a 21-day ultimatum to the management to address the lingering workers’ welfare demands, which it claimed had been on over the years.

An online statement signed by the Secretary General, NUR, Comrade Segun Esan, and made available to journalists in Lagos stated that the unions took the step as a result of its commitment to industrial peace and unflinching reverence for the chairman of Nigeria Railway Board, Dr. Bamanga Tafida Tukur, and the board members who he said had promised to help in actualising the unions’ legitimate demands before the management.

The statement reads: “We have temporarily put our industrial action on hold and have respectfully given the board one month time space counting from 30th July so that the Chairman could have enough time to help in resolving our articulated demands that have been lying before the management for over a year now.

“The union’s decision to suspend the strike temporarily was reached in a three-day meeting convened by the NRC Board Chairman between the NRC management and the representatives of the two in-house unions believing that the intervention of the board would amicably realise the demands as expected by the workers. “Our chairman is an honourable man who respects his words.

We strongly believe in him and out of great regards we have for him, we have decided to suspend the strike temporarily so as to allow him and his equally respectable Board members work things out for our workers.”

Esan who declared that the workers of the corporation were suffering due to several policies of the government, noted that the board had promised to intervene in the interest of the nation.

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