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By Bimbola Oyesola
Goke Olatunji, the President of the National Union of Chemical, Footwear, Rubber, Leather and Non-Metallic Products Employees (NUCFRLANMPE), is not one that gives up in the face of challenges, but find a way around it to benefit the workers, which is the core responsibility of the Organised Labour.
In this interview, he explains how his union is surmounting the challenges of organising.
He also speaks on how the economy has impacted workers and the expectation from the incoming administration.
Olatunji, a member of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) also highlights on the issue of brain drain, the fuel subsidy and issues of industrial relation as it affects the chemical sector. Excerpts:
May Day
With the state of Nigeria’s economy, workers can only celebrate the fact that we are still alive against all odds. The effect of the economy on Nigerian workers is seriously bad. There is no money, we use naira to buy naira, it is such a terrible thing that we have never experienced before. This is coupled with the issue of fuel scarcity, no one really understands the cause of the problem. These are national challenges, but coming to our own sector, the production challenges, we have to contend with. We are facing a lot of hardships; many of our companies have closed down because of this. One of our companies has just discussed intent of closing and two or three others are discussing redundancy and retrenchment. However, we thank God that we are alive and we have to celebrate life
Incoming administration
Our expectation from them is to do the right thing particularly in areas that have been against the interest of workers, they have to ensure those areas are adjusted. For instance, the minimum wage of N30,000 is nothing to write home about. In addition, they must look at the economy in general to alleviate the suffering of Nigerians.
The expectation is high, they have to consider the masses that have suffered for too long in whatever planning they are doing right now. We expect the incoming government to be up and doing and hit the ground running. I will say unequivocally that the new president of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero is ready for them. The NLC will be there as usual to be the voice of the people having seen what an average Nigerians are presently going through, the sufferings and the hardship, we will ensure that Nigerians get what they deserve from the new government, which is good governance and accountability.
Government Policy
It is not that government are not coming up with good policy, but the major problem is the implementation. All hands must be on deck to make things works. Policy inconsistency is another problem, government should come out with policy that will encourage foreign investors. This is very important for us to move forward as a nation. We want government to take issue of security seriously. There is nowhere that is secure in Nigeria as at today, and no foreign company will want to invest in a place that is not secured. Government, most especially the incoming government must address this. Also government must chose the right people for every positions. Government must go for the technocrat. Am also emphasizing it that the next government must put the right peg into the right hole. Any government official that is not ready to work should be removed.
Brain drain
As I said earlier, the incoming government needs to do a lot to improve the economy. People are leaving in droves because it is not easy to live in Nigeria. It is because our Naira has been devalued and exchange rate is high. Even to afford three-square meal in the country today is not easy. Some have even resorted to going to people’s homes to beg for food. That is the harsh reality of life currently in Nigeria.
Casualisation
This issue of casualisation has continued to be a problem in Nigeria and now very common and practiced by virtually all employers of labour. Even those casual workers, if you ask them not to do it, they would ask if you are going to feed them. It is as bad as that because of the growing unemployment figures in the country. However, we are still tackling the issue in our sector to our very best. The common term now used by the employers is outsourcing and contract staff to describe it, which has now been registered with the Federal Ministry of Labour. What we are doing now, however, is to make sure that we organize them by introducing unions to them because there is no law that says we should not organize workers.
Organising
Our plan now is to intensify more efforts in the area of organising. Our sector experienced a lot of closure and redundancy, but we equally have some new companies coming up. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a lot of our companies were shut down and were paying salary to their workers. This has effect on their profit margin. No production, no sales. We, as a union cannot demand for anything for our members during those period.
There are some benefits, that workers enjoyed when they go to work, like free lunch, overtime, company products and the rest, all those were stopped. But we thank God that we have surmounted that now. The pandemic really dealt with us. As of today, we cannot count more than 300 companies in our industry nationwide and before we have over 500, 600. Some of them could not come back. We have some relocating outside Nigeria to neighbouring countries like Ghana, Sierra leone. Companies like Michelin, Dunlop and others.
However we have been able to organise more companies and that is why we are still standing and I will say overcoming our challenges gradually.
State of the union
It is not all about me, union work is teamwork. With God on our side, we have been able to achieve a lot. We carried out a proper maintenance of our secretariat building and that of the guesthouse. Also work is ongoing in our shopping complex. We have now even adopted the use of renewable energy, Solar.
We organize training programmes for every of our members almost every year. As we speak, all member of my central working committee possess leadership qualities as a result of constant training.
Projects
The multi-million naira hotel project commissioned early this year was part of our diversification plan. That, we should not depend only on check off dues and that we should look for another way to generate income for the union. That was how the idea of the new hotel came up. I then appealed to the central working committee to give me an approval that every month, whatever we gathered through the check off dues, should go into the project. So that was how we started and to God be the Glory we completed the project late last year and it was unveiled by the NLC President. As it is now, we have recruited some staff and the hotel is now in operation. So whatever comes in will be part of our income. Actually our guest house was conceived to take care of our members coming from the outstations. Anytime they visit the secretariat on official duties, we lodged them at hotels, but with our guests house, we will be able to cut down on such expenses.
The same goes for our shopping mall, the last regime of Comrade Boniface Isok did the first floor, but when I came, I did the second and the last floor and the roofing which we did with iron steel. What remains now is the finishing. Our members are really working hard to ensure completion of the project.
We conceptualized the shopping malls, with event centre as means of generating income for the union. Already people have started making enquiry about it, but we told them to allow us to complete it.
Fuel Subsidy
As at today when government have not removed fuel subsidy, in some part of the country, people are buying a litre of petrol for around N300, if they now remove the subsidy that means we will be buying between N750 and N1,000.
How do you want a common Nigerian to survive? How much is the price of gas now? From N200 to about N800 per liter, where do we go from here. We must not forget that we are the one producing this fuel. As a body, we will not support removal of fuel subsidy, that is if there is anything like subsidy anyway. There is no future in the way this country is going now because you can see all our youths are now going abroad for greener pastures. Those in the country are committing all manners of crime in order to be rich.
Expectation
Let us approach it from this angle, Labour is not more than 10 or 15 percent of the total population, also leadership style of labour presidents differs. Aside being a journalist, our current president also has a strong foundation in the private sector and is fully prepared to run the affairs of workers.
Labour party
We have just started, as time goes on we would grow stronger. We tried to ensure that we give the Labour Party our support, even though it might not be enough. It is of recent that people started recognizing that Labour Party belongs to the Labour Congress. So I believe in the next four years, we would see a better party.
