Federal and State workers in Delta State, on Tuesday, joined their counterparts nationwide in the nationwide strike against the federal government.
This was also as Delta workers under the umbrella of the Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria (PASAN) vowed to continue with their industrial action despite the appeal made to them by Emomotimi Guwor, the speaker of the Assembly, last week.
The State NLC and TUC had, in a statement jointly signed by Enekhawore Acrobat and Okoh Kenneth, listed the contentious issues as the failure of the Federal Government to agree and legislate on a new national minimum wage, reversal of electricity tariff from N225/kWh to N55/kwh and a halt to the categorization of electricity consumers into Bands.
They directed all the affiliate unions across the state to hold their sides and ensure full compliance by their members.
BusinessDay’s checks revealed that public institutions in the state, like state and local government Secretariats, banks, schools, Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) etc, were under lock and key while hospitals operated skeletal services.
The state Assembly complex was still under lock and key as of Monday.
It was gathered that the striking workers held a brief meeting in front of the locked Assembly gate in the morning and vowed that none of its members shall be part of the forthcoming 8th anniversary of the Assembly scheduled to commence tomorrow (Tuesday, June 4, 2024).
It would be recalled YourCitiNews reported that Guwor held a meeting with the leadership of the PASAN last week asking them to call off the strike but the workers’ leadership didn’t agree thereby leading to a deadlock.
The Speaker had told the union leaders that “it was more worrisome that the workers chose to commence the industrial action on the break of the first year in office of the State Governor, Rt Hon Sheriff Oborevwori, when Deltans were celebrating God’s grace upon the state and the milestones achieved by the Governor within just a year”.
The bone of contention necessitating the strike according to PASAN “is the non-funding of the Assembly clinic and failure to approve and pay the Staff Consolidated Legislative Salary Structure (CONLESS) which has remained an issue of dispute for almost three years; the failure of Assembly leadership to regularise the appointment of casual staff members, train workers and pay all their entitlements, among others”.
