By Ikenna Omeje
The National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) has directed Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD) to withdraw their services from Kaduna State, effective, Sunday, May 16, 2021.
In a letter addressed to the Chairman and the Secretary of PTD, the General Secretary of NUPENG, Comrade Olawale Afolabi, said this is in line with the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) directive to Nigerian workers to withdraw their services from Kaduna State, because of the state government refusal to implement the new national minimum wage and mass sack of teachers and other civil servants.
“Following series of anti labour acts and behavior of the Kaduna State Government led by Mr. (Nasir) el-Rufai as shown in mass sack of teachers and other civil servants in the state and his refusal to implement the new minimum wage as provided for in the new minimum wage law, the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has directed that there should be total withdrawal of services to Kaduna State by Nigerian workers for five (05) days in the first instance from Sunday 16th May 2021.
“Consequent upon that directive, you are hereby directed to effect maximum compliance of this directive for the successful execution of this campaign against anti labour activities and behavior of the Executive Governor of Kaduna State,” Afolabi stated in the letter.
The NLC has been at loggerheads with el-Rufai since April, over his plans to downsize the state workforce, because of dwindling federal allocation occasioned by Covid-19 pandemic.
The governor in a statement had said, “… the state government has no choice but to shed some weight and reduce the size of the public service. It is a painful but necessary step to take, for the sake of the majority of the people of this state.”
“The public service of the state with less than 100,000 employees and their families cannot be consuming more than 90% of government resources, with little left to positively impact the lives of the more than 9 million that are not political appointees or civil servants.
“It is gross injustice for such a micro minority to consume the majority of the resources of the State,” el-Rufai noted.
