By Johnbosco Agbakwuru & Emmanuel Elebeke

The Nigerian Labour Union, NLC, on Wednesday, protested at the premises of Chinese Construction Company, Shaanxi Construction Company at the New ECOWAS Secretariat, Airport Road, Lugbe over inhuman treatment and casualization of its members at the site.

The Protest spearheaded by the Construction Workers Union and the Nigerian Labour Congress with its allied unions were led by the NLC General Secretary, Comrade Emmanuel Ugbaja and leaders of the Construction Workers Union, temporarily paralysed activities at the company’s office.

Labour accused the construction company of dehumanizing the workers and casualization by the management.

The protesting workers who forcefully broke into the construction site after they were denied access by the Chinese company sang solidarity songs and brandishing placards with various inscriptions such as: “Don’t kill workers with poor wages and overbearing overtime!”
Addressing the protesting workers, General Secretary of NLC, Comrade Emma Ugboaja lamented the alleged inhuman treatment meted out to the workers at the construction site.

He said that congress responded to complain by the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) chapter of the construction workers union over bad working conductions at the construction site.

According to Ugboaja the Chinese company engaged the workers on ad-hoc basis with no conditions of service attached nor any welfare or medical services in place.

He regretted that due to the deplorable work conditions at the place, one of the workers, a driver, Mr. Augustine died out of neglect and lack of timely medical attention.

Ugboaja said that while the picketing action continued, the leadership of labour hopes to engage the management of Shaanxi Construction Engineering Group Corporation in discussion to address the concerns of their workers.

Regarding the demise of the driver, Ugboaja said: ” Mrs. Ruth Augustine migrated with her husband and family to Abuja to come and earn a living. Now the man in to help build ECOWAS a Secretariat has ended up six feet down leaving his poor widow to face the vagaries of life, no pension, no gratuity, no food, no water and no explanation, where will help come from?

“Every day we plead with the government to provide minimal social security floor, to no avail. That is the challenge we have. This challenge is real,” he said.

Ugboaja said that contrary to critics who accuse labour of crying wolves where there are none, the widow of the deceased was present to tell the story of the ugly experience of her late husband.

Narrating her ordeal, Ruth said her husband secured a job last year as a driver with a Chinese company, but that the condition he was given does not allow him to come home after work.

“He will work from Monday till Sunday. I asked him whether they give him a bonus for the overtime and extra work he was doing. He said no. My husband will work from morning till night with no food and he will not be allowed to come home.

“Even when he comes home, he will not stay up to an hour before hurting back the site, the woman said. Ruth said that after the husband returned to work in January after Christmas festivities, he stayed back for two months at the company without visiting home.

“However, Mrs. Augustine said she became worried and called him.
“From the conversation, I knew he was very sick”.

According to her, the company failed to take her husband to the hospital and still did not allow him go home for treatment. “When they eventually permitted him to go home, his situation has worsened. He was having swollen neck and looked highly malnourished”, she said.

The woman said she took her husband to the Gwagwalada Teaching Hospital in Abuja and later to the National Hospital where he passed on.

In all these ordeals, Mrs Augustine said the Chinese company failed to heed her pleas for assistance. Instead, she said that what she got was a termination letter for her husband.

Earlier in his own address, Comrade Ibrahim said the protesters gathered in solidarity with their fellow workers

According him, ‘‘These people are coming to build ECOWAS, we want believe ECOWAS is for West African Sub-region, it supposed to be for the good of citizens of its member states, but in doing that, we belief they should not undermine the welfare of our people. When they built an embassy, there was labour union there, workers were represented and workers issues were addressed.

‘’We are here to give Nigerian workers a voice and dignity and they have their rights to protect as enshrined in the books. We want the Chinese to open their doors for discussion, not to be referring us to ECOWAS Secretariat.

“Chinese will not enslave us in our own country in the name of building ECOWAS Secretariat. Few days ago, the company took their workers to police station just because they were fighting for their rights. It took the intervention of NLC President and his team to get them out of the police custody.’’

He also accused some security personnel of conniving with the Chinese to dehumanise Nigerian workers against the laid down rules.

‘‘We learnt a worker died and they cared not about him or to pay compensation. How can this continue? How long will these people work like this without closing time.’’

In his address, the Chairman of Construction Workers Union and Vice President of NLC, Comrade Stephen Itoro decried the attitude of some of the workers who connive with the company to betray their fellow workers.

He urged the protesters not to give up in their struggle to liberate their fellow workers and vowed that they would not back out until their demands were met.