BY EBELE ONUORAH
LAGOS— Advocacy group, Campaign for Democratic and Workers' Rights, CDWR, has condemned the Anti-Labour Bill, sponsored by Senator Heineken Lokpobori (People's Democratic Party, PDP, Bayelsa West), describing it as a bid to muzzle workers' freedom.
The group, in a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Mr Chinedu Bosah, said the bill was merely a pretence of promoting democracy that would not do the country any good, adding that the bill, if passed, would only undermine the rights of workers and the entire Nigerian masses.
It will be recalled that the bill which was sponsored by Senator Lokpobori was to amend the Labour Law with a view to including a clause, making it mandatory for unions to vote before embarking on industrial strike actions.
CDWR urged Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC and Trade Union Congress, TUC, "to see the bill as a new weapon of class struggle, which the ruling elite is trying to use against workers rather than approached same from a mere diplomatic point of view.
"Workers' salary like the living condition of the vast majority of Nigerians suffered a serious setback when President Goodluck Jonathan's administration increased petrol price from N65 to N142 and now N97. This bill is just one of the means to undermine any future resistance like the last fuel hike protest."
The group called on trade union leaders and the working masses to challenge the bill with mass actions, including rallies, demonstrations and strike so that the needs of the masses would become the determinant factor in planning basic infrastructure in the country.
Vanguard Nigeria