Minister of Information and Communications, Dora Akunyili, of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is involved in negotiating a labor agreement with the communication workers union. Nigeria has been hit with a wave of labor militantcy.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos
November 16, 2010 05:20AM
A meeting between the Minister of Information and Communications, Dora Akunyili, and officials of the Radio, Television and Theatre Art Workers Union (RATTAWU) ended in a deadlock on Monday.
Mrs. Akunyili had called RATTAWU to a meeting in Abuja to avert the three-day warning strike it threatened to embark on from November 22 to press its demand for a new salary structure for media workers.
Yemisi Bamgbose, the president of RATTAWU, told journalists that the outcome of the meeting was that the warning strike would go on.
"We have told our story to the minister that the strike is not intended against her, but the fact of the matter is that those of us in the media and culture cannot continue like this," Mr. Bamgbose said.
He said that after consultation with members all over the country, the union had decided to embark on a warning strike.
Mr. Bamgbose said the government had taken the media for granted for too long, and that this was responsible for the non-implementation of the recommendations of the committee it set up on the union's demands.
Also speaking on the issue, Shuaibu Leman, the general secretary of the Nigeria Union of Journalist (NUJ), told journalists that the NUJ was in support of the proposed warning strike by RATTAWU.
"Media workers are tired of working as slaves in this country. That is why we are demanding for a decent wage and a living wage for that matter.
"We believe that journalists and all other media workers who are members of this union need to be treated properly and decently," Mr. Leman added.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Akunyili has said that she will hold further discussions with the union on the need to reconsider its decision to embark on the strike.
"We are still discussing, at least I have explained to them all the efforts I have made to ensure that they get what they want.
"I believe very strongly that they would not let me down. They would not go on strike because they have come to appreciate some of the things I have been doing. We did not conclude. I hope they are going back to discuss and their discussion will bring forth good results," she added.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that RATTAWU's demand for a new salary structure early this year led the Federal Government to set up a committee headed by Abubakar Jijiwa, the director general of the Voice of Nigeria (VON).
The committee reviewed media workers' salaries, but since it submitted its report, the government is yet to comment on it.
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