An open manifestation of the crackdown occurred on the night of Sunday, 2nd February 2020 when, at about 9pm, the state secretariat of NLC was sealed by security agencies on the orders of the state government on the allegation that the building needed to undergo proper integrity test and therefore must be closed for officials to carry out the exercise.
Browsing: Workers World
The invasion of the corona virus pandemic has altered the world the way we know it. Our world will never remain the same again. The contemporary world of work is in dire straits. There are even greater fears on the future of work. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has reported that the COVID-19 social lockdown measures have affected almost 2.7 billion workers worldwide. This represents around 81 per cent of the world’s workforce. In these circumstances, businesses across a range of economic sectors are facing catastrophic losses. The threats to operations and solvency, among smaller enterprises, make millions of workers vulnerable to income loss and layoffs.
“COVID-19 has reminded us in a forceful way that health is a fundamental right and attribute that we must all enjoy to be able to have a meaningful life. This pandemic provides us the lesson that we must prioritize the universal right to health and place it at the heart of the workers’ struggle. We recall the constitution of the World Health Organization that recognizes health for all as a fundamental condition for peace and security in the world. COVID-19 teaches clearly that we need the cooperation of all persons and states to achieve health security for the world and its people.”
While the immediate task is to find how to cope with the hardships imposed by income challenges, the medium and long terms pose a different kind of challenge. This is the fact that the world of work is being remodelled via the present constraints against physical congregations at work. This emerging world – a virtual world – portends an early arrival of the future of work that has been much hyped in recent times.
This was revealed in a terse WhatsApp text by Comrade Max Conteh, the Acting General Secretary of SLLC, to an ITUC-Africa whatsApp platform stating that Comrade Wright had passed on some hours ago from an undisclosed illness.
In the letter dated 14th April, 2020, but made available to National Record on Wednesday, Comrade Wabba intimated the SGF on three core focal areas of Labour-Civil Society Program of Action on Covid-19.
“As in a war situation, our collective survival is at stake. This demands that all well-meaning groups in society join forces to fight the common threat that faces our entire continent. All groups that claim to represent people in various ways and all persons who lay claim to leadership at any level are duty bound to stand up in this time of crisis to be counted and to live up to their responsibilities of leadership,” says Comrade Kwasi Adu-Amankwah, the General secretary of ITUC-Africa, who signed the letter.
“While the Nigeria Labour Congress applauds the goodwill by the IMF and World Bank, we wish to express our displeasure that Nigeria was excluded from the list of benefitting countries announced by IMF. We call for the inclusion of Nigeria in the beneficiary list for the Covid-19 related debt relief and debt moratorium based on very cogent reasons.”
“We must leave no one behind in the response, and build universal social protection including floors, and universal health coverage. Income support must be expanded to meet the rising unemployment, with no barriers to access for informal and non-standard workers. This is the moment for necessary ambition, with no time for piecemeal solutions or programmes that exclude the needy with narrow targeting and shift risks onto workers alone.”
“While we focus on the victory ahead, we must also reflect on the lessons that the sobriety enforced by the Covid-19 pandemic and the resulting global lockdown offer. These lessons are also the lessons of Easter. Easter reminds us of God’s love for the whole world. Covid-19 reminds us of a shared humanity. We are in this together. Covid-19 reminds us that what touches the nose would soon touch the eyes. Rich countries, poor climes, developed economies, struggling societies, workers, owners of capital, politicians, peasants, aristocrats, artisans, are all affected by this global pandemic that fears neither class nor status.”