Union Urges Dialogue Than Picketing, Strike

The leadership of Senior
Staff Association of Electricity and Allied Companies (SSAEC) has restated its  belief in effective dialogue in resolving industrial disagreements rather than picketing or embarking on strike action.
The President General of the Union, Comrade Bede Opara, stated this in his address at the union’s third triennial national delegates conference held in Abuja, recently.
Opara said the union has remained largely peaceful and contributing its quota to the development of the power sector to remain vibrant, stressing that the union’s style has always been effective dialogue, coupled with superior arguments.
He said when all avenues for peaceful dialogue have been exhausted, SSAEC leadership and its members are left with no option than resort to mobilising its members out for picketing or strike action.
The labour leader urged the government to prevail on the new investors in the power sector to respect the industrial relations practice as well as Nigeria labour law, adding that the workers should be carried along to move the sector forward.
He said the union represents the authentic voice of the workers along the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) in the power sector, adding that as the nation continues to look for solution to the epileptic power situation in the country, workers in the power sector should be considered by the federal governemnt as strategic stakeholders and partners in progress for the success of the sector.
He praised members of the union for the support given to his leadership during his periods and stressed that he was leaving the association far richer than when he was elected the union’s president general.
Opara said his greatest achievement was the absorption of some retrenched staff of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) and successful negotiation of payment of gratuities and entiltments to the retrenched staff of the defunct Power Holding Company.
Also in his solidatity speech at the delegates conference, the National President Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC), Comrade Bobboi Bala Kaigama, urged employers to cease from undermining the interest of workers stressing that Nigerian workers have always been  endangered species wherever there is economic crisis in the country.
Kaigama called for harmonious working relationship between the employers and the employees.