May Day: Fashola Charges Labour To Choose Dialogue Over Strike

In Lagos, thousands of workers converged on the Onikan Stadium to commemorate May Day.

The Lagos State Governor, Mr Babatunde Fashola, joined members of the organized labour in commemorating the 2015 Workers Day with a charge that organized labour must resolve to sacrifice, participate and be determined to be a part of the solution at all times.

While seeking support for the incoming administration to consolidate on his achievements, Governor Babatunde Fashola challenged workers on the need to change their strategies to enhance productivity.

The Governor, who spoke at the Onikan Stadium, Lagos before a gathering of labour union members and their leaders, added that organized labour must resolve not to be a part of the problem but must choose negotiation and dialogue over strikes and lock outs.

Bidding farewell and expressing gratitude for the co-operation he has enjoyed from the state’s workforce in the last eight years, he reiterated that the organized labour must resolve at all times that strike must be a last and reluctant resort when everything else has failed.

Governor Fashola said that very substantial revenue is always lost in monetary terms anytime the nation resorts to strikes and that such colossal amounts could have been deployed to improving the lives of the citizens.

He stated that he recently directed a low scale study to be carried out on strikes between the year 2007 and 2014 and the results showed that almost 30 different strikes took place between that period with about 1,279 days lost to the strikes.

“This state generates an approximate N20Billion every month. So every day, it is about N600million. If you do it in Lagos it would be N852 Billion. Imagine what that would have done in your lives”, he stressed.

He noted that nothing was wrong with strikes, but that everything is wrong with deploying the wrong solution to a problem. “What we need most is to deliver power, to revive our economy, to create jobs. Strikes will not revive the Nigerian economy,” he said.

Governor Fashola also noted that factions of labour unions, wherever they exist will not help change, and they must resolve their differences, come together and rally round the new government to create change.

Governor Fashola, who reflected that the 2015 May Day Rally would be the last one he would be attending as the Governor, thanked everyone for their support and criticisms, saying they all helped to bring the administration to its glorious day.

He asked the organized labour to give his successor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, more support than they gave him because Ambode and his team would need their support in order to make the task of fulfilling their promises to the people less arduous.

The Chairman of the Trade Union Congress in Lagos State, Akeem Kazeem and Nigeria Labour Congress, Idowu Adelakun in their goodwill messages commended the Lagos State Government for its efforts in improving the welfare of workers in the past eight years.

Goodwill messages were also read by the Director-General of the Lagos State Safety Commission, Mrs Dominga Odebunmi and the Chief Executive Officer of the Lagos State Aids Control Agency, Dr Tokunbo Dabiri.

The various trade unions and associations later took part in a march past the Governor, who took the ceremonial salute.

 TV