Workers deserve the best

Today is International Workers’ Day, otherwise called May Day or Workers’ Day. It is a day set aside every year to celebrate workers in many countries of the world; to reflect on their welfare and other issues concerning them. It is a day to also commemorate the historic struggles of workers and achievements of the labour movement across the globe. It is marked officially with a public holiday in about 66 countries and unofficially celebrated in many more countries.

The date was first chosen in 1889 when an international federation of socialist groups and trade unions called for the commemoration of Haymarket Riot that occurred in Chicago, United States, in 1886. The riot was an offshoot of the demands by workers for an eight-hour workday. The first celebration took place on May 1, 1890. In Nigeria, the People’s Redemption Party government of Kano State first declared May Day as public holiday in 1980. It later became a national holiday in May 1981. 

For Nigerian workers, this year’s May Day comes at a time they are grappling with many existential problems, including low wages, poverty and misery, insecurity, high cost of living and unfair labour practices. Many workers borrow to make ends meet as salaries are mostly irregular. Many of them find it difficult to pay house rent, feed the family, pay school fees, and meet other basic needs.

Some of the workers are yet to receive the new minimum wage of N30, 000 even when the wage has become apparently worthless now. When the minimum wage was being discussed, petrol price was about N97 a litre. Today, the price is about N165 a litre. Then, dollar was about N360. Today, it is almost N600. To worsen matters, some of these workers work without pay while many are casual workers. Many of those who are retired cannot even get their pensions and gratuities.

Nigerian workers also suffer from harsh conditions such as disruptions in power supply and deficiency in some other critical sectors. Currently, university unions, such as the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities (NASU) are on strike. The strikes have crippled our tertiary institutions. Judicial and health workers have also had cause to go on strike at different times in recent times. Workers in the financial sector also have their own lamentations. They have, at various times, decried alleged abuses and unfriendly policies targeted at them.

The COVID-19 pandemic that ravaged many parts of the world, including Nigeria, played an ignoble role in degrading the worth of Nigerian workers. Many of them lost their jobs. Some had their salaries cut, while some others were not paid at all. Although the situation has improved for many companies, the lot of workers in many of these companies remains the same.  All these have direct and indirect impacts on their welfare and standard of living.

The Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) reportedly decried this turn of events for workers in Nigeria. In a message to workers ahead of the 2022 May Day, NUPENG’s President and General Secretary, Prince Williams Akporeha and Afolabi Olawale, said: “These inhumane and indecent working conditions have over the years continued unabated in one form or the other as evident in new forms of employment, including child labour, trafficking, casual, contract and outsourced labour. Millions of Nigerians working people have suffered one form of dehumanisation and exploitation from the unscrupulous employers, while many have died in the process.”

NUPENG regretted that job security, casual labour, decent work, health and safety issues were still not well addressed in the nation’s oil and gas industry. It promised not to rest on its oars until these issues were adequately addressed and resolved for the good of the hard-working masses.

Unfortunately, organised labour generally appears to be losing its relevance in the scheme of things. The Nigerian labour movement once boasted of people like the late Chief Michael Imoudu, Wahab Goodluck, Hassan Sunmonu, Paschal Bafyau and Adams Oshiomhole, among others. These people led workers in their popular struggles to enthrone fair labour practices in Nigeria. A good and responsible labour union will fight to protect workers by forcing the powers that be to cut the cost of governance and improve workers’ welfare. 

Nigerian workers deserve the best because they contribute to economic development of the country. Nigerian workers should be made to earn a living wage. A labourer is worth his wage. Paying workers commensurate wages will largely promote the dignity of labour.

Government must strive to improve the working conditions of Nigerian workers. State governments should pay the new minimum wage which cannot really take any worker home these days. Casualisation of workers in oil companies, banks and others must stop. We congratulate Nigerian workers on this year’s May Day celebration and urge them to do more in their work places.