Some group of angry Cross River State workers have called on the Civil Service Commission to facilitate processes that will lead to promotion of workers in the state.
The workers threatened that any attempt by the commission not to heed to this call will lead to break down of the peaceful co-existence which used to exist between the commission, civil servants, and the state branch of the Nigeria Labour Congress.
Speaking under the auspices of Amalgamated Joint Union (AJU), the aggrieved workers berated the state leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) for betraying workers and not fighting for their promotion “because many of them have been promoted and their salaries are running.”
The Union’s leader, Comrade Joseph Ekpe while speaking on workers’ fate in an interaction with media men in Calabar stated that workers have been expecting their promotion since last year, “but the commission, in connivance with labour leaders, has continued to delay it for whatever reason.”
Ekpe said, “we the Amalgamated Joint Union are out to protect the interest of workers in the state. We are members of the NLC but because our leaders have sold us out, we have decided to take our fate in our hands by warning the Civil Service Commission to henceforth facilitate our promotion.”
He said, “We went on a statewide strike last year as NLC because of this promotion exercise but now, our leaders have connived with the commission to stall our promotion because some of them have received their promotion to level sixteen and their salaries are running. We see this as a serious betrayal because the essence of trade unionism is to serve the interest of members and not otherwise.”
The union leader maintained that it was the first time in the history of Cross River State that workers promotion “will take eternity” to effect, and threatened to give the state government a show down if the problem was not addressed.
He said “Many workers have not been promoted for eight to ten years and the governor gave the go ahead to the commission to undertake the exercise but up till now, the commission is telling all kinds of stories after we have spent so much in terms of time and money. We are surprised that the leadership of NLC in the state is quiet over this gross misconduct by the commission.”
Ekpe called on Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River State to quickly intervene in the matter so as to save the state another round of workers’ strike, and accused the commission and the leadership of NLC of failing to live up to their expectation of protecting the interest of workers.

Friday Nwagbara, Calabar