By Eberechi Obinagwam
Members of Private Telecommunications and Communications Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PTECSSAN) on Thursday blocked the entrance gate of HUAWEI Technologies Nigeria office at Oriental hotel Victoria Island, Lagos, in protest against allaged precarious working conditions of its workers.
The union members carried placards with inscription; “Stop arbitrary sack of workers, Union membership is a right to freedom of association, Stop cowing workers, Monkey dey work. Baboon dey chop, etc.”
Comrade Okonu Abdullahi, PTECSSAN General Secretary, said since inception of its activities in Nigeria, Huawei Technologies Nigeria Limited has been enslaving a category of Nigerians who are in the majority using different mushroom companies, “These workers work under precarious working conditions which are made worse by constant intimidations, harassment and arbitrary sack of the workers,” he said.
He said the union decided to go on a protest because Hauwai has made no move to meet their demands, “It is over a week since we started the ongoing indefinite strike and no move by Huawei Technologies Nigeria to meet with the union or meet its demands. This care-free attitude of the company has kept the strike action lingering this long and also, led to this action of ours today, September 19, 2024,” he said.
The Union is demanding for an immediate reinstatement of the three unjustly sacked members of the union, recognition of the fundamental right of the employees to freely associate with the union, recognition of the union as negotiating body for the employees on workers welfare, adherance to occupational health and safety for the workers in line with international best practices, commencement of appropriate pensions deduction and remittance of same as required by the Pension Act and many more.
Comrade Abdullahi noted that the protest will continue if the company refuses to adhere to their request, “We resolved that the picketing action shall be a continuous one until the company is cured of its errors- precarious working conditions it subject our members,” he said.
He also disclosed that Nigeria Labour Congress is aware of their actions, “NLC is aware of this and they are in support of it. Our union has made all peaceful means to get the attention of HUAWEI, but they keep falling out. They do not even regard the government. The ministry of labour representing the government will call them for a meeting they will not turn up. We went for reconciliation in Abuja, they didn’t turn up except for one or two. So we said enough is enough. The demonstration is part of actions put in place to mount pressure on them and if they didn’t yeild to it, we will continue and it won’t be business as usual,” he said.
