Moves by some aggrieved private sector unions to bring the alleged betrayal of private sector by the public public sector, on the floor of Tuesday’s meeting of the National Executive Council, NEC, of Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, hit the rocks.

Labour Vanguard gathered that the aggrieved private sector unions had petitioned the NEC and the petition was circulated to NEC members by the petitioners at the the meeting.

It was gathered that as the meeting progressed,all entreaties to discuss the issue was rebuffed by Congress President, Abdulwaheed Omar.

Omar was said to have insisted that whatever that transpired in an informal arrangement was unknown to the constitution of NLC, could not be brought into a meeting of NLC organ.

It was gathered the petitioners were said to have expressed disappointment over the development.

One of the concerned union leaders at the meeting, lamented that it was unfortunate that the leadership of NLC lost an opportunity to discuss and possibly resolve a looming disunity and disaffection in the movement.

Recall that ahead of National Delegates Conference, NDC, of NLC taking place between February 9 and 11 in Abuja, some private sector unions are accusing the public sector unions of betrayal.

Labour Vanguard findings revealed both sectors had set up Unity Forum, UF, bringing presidents and general secretaries of affiliate unions together to hamoniously shared elective NLC’s positions.

According to investigations, several meetings were held leading to a meeting of December 30, 2014, at Planet One, Maryland, Ikeja, where elective positions into the leadership of NLC (National Administrative Council, NAC,) were shared between the sectors.   According to the sharing formula, Labour Vanguard gathered, having conceded the presidency to the private sector, the remaining positions were shared in the ratio of 9 to the public sector and 7 to the private sector.

The meeting was said to have adjourned to January 3, 2015, to finalise the above resolution.

The public sector unions were said to be merely playing for time and kept the private sector unions waiting to no avail, until it dawned on the private sector unions that they were not only betrayed by the public sector unions, but were at the verge of submitting their nomination forms late, which would have meant disqualification.

Dangers ahead: From the list of contestants cleared to contest for positions during the conference, the implications maybe far reaching. Arguably, only a few of individuals in the list cleared can influence things that could take the movement out of the present doldrums.

In fact, there are fears that the incoming leadership may take the NLC deeper into oblivion and widen the increasing parallel lines between congress and the shop floor workers.

Mass action

As it is, schemers in NLC may have successfully shut out Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria, MWUN and National Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTW from NLC leadership. And from all indications, equally likely to be shut out, from the leadership of Congress are Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, and National Union of Electricity Employees, NUEE.

Can one imagines a mass action or national strike declared by congress and NUPENG, MWUN, NUEE, NURTW and these critical private sector unions fail to give total support? The implication is better imagined than experienced.

By technically excluding these unions from the leadership of congress, the cabal and labour contractors holding congress hostage, may have successfully destroyed the unity and cohesion in the movement.

From any angle one wants to look at it, these unions are the most critical and potent affiliates of NLC.

While government or employers may decide to ignore many other affiliates of Congress, they cannot afford the luxury of a strike by NURTW, MWUN, NUPENG and NUEE. Individually or collectively, these unions have the capacity to collectively or individually cripple the economy of the country.

Under Oshiomhole

For the records, under a forward looking and progressively minded Comrade Adams Oshiomhole leadership of NLC, strategically, NUPENG, MWUN and NURTW were parts of the leadership of NLC.

Before Comrade Oshiomhole left in 2007, he made sure these strategic and critical unions including NUEE, remained part of the leadership of Congress.

It did not end there, Comrade Oshiomhole made sure that the leadership of NLC included labour leaders with critical minds, those who could influence things in their unions and also command the respect of their employers, not just those who wanted to use NLC platform as ego and vehicle for personal aggrandizement.

Delegates conference

But today, even those that will retire this year are part of the incoming NLC leadership, those who should have ended their tenures as leaders of their unions, who refused to hold their unions’ delegates conference for close to two years, those who after serving as presidents of their unions, transmuted to unions’ scribes, those who deliberately undermined and weakened their unions’ secretariats, and those from their actions and antecedents, are nothing but labour contractors are part of the incoming leadership of Congress.

From all indications, the incoming NLC leadership will be dominated by individuals who are sit-tight, self-centred, labour contractors, government/employers’ apologists who are without moral, intellectual and charismatic capacities to galvanise workers for mass action against anti-labour policies.

The unfortunate thing about some of these incoming leaders, is that in their previous responsibilities in Congress, besides where they allegedly helped themselves to feed fat, they were found wanting in core labour issues such as casualisation, retrenchment, unionization, and workers wellbeing.

There is no gainsaying the fact that these are armchair labour leaders without a history of struggle and have never been on picketing line.