Lagos Firm Seeks Rescue from Rampaging Unions
Production at a Lagos-based firm, Linda Manufacturing Company, makers of X-pression hair attachments and weavon, has been halted for almost three weeks now due to the activities of aggrieved unionists, who were sacked from the company recently.
The company is therefore seeking the interventions of the law enforcement agencies and other authorities concerned, most especially the Lagos State Government to come to its rescue, noting that this group has embarked on a mission of destruction and disruption over the last three weeks.
The hair manufacturing company based in Agege with headquarters in Mushin, noted further that the sacked unionists’ actions, have not only disrupted innocent workers from coming to work and earning their means of livelihood but have also forced workers to be loitering around the roadside rather.
The South Korean company, which revealed that about 8,000 workers are presently under its payroll, expressed worry that this action of a group of unions was capable of affecting the economic progress of Lagos State and the nation as a whole by sending wrong signals to investors, especially at this time that the government of Nigeria is wooing foreign investors to come into the country and invest. The aggrieved workers responsible were said to have gone on rampage soon after their appointments were terminated by the company.
Conducting journalists around the company, the Operations Manager, Mr. Monday Nnah, explained that it all started with an illegal protest that was ignited by the branch Chairman of National Union of Footwear Rubber Leather and Non-Metallic Products Employees (NUCFRLANMPE), Mr. Emmanuel Usangusung on January 25, 2016, which eventually resulted in riot.
He said Usangusung with his group caused serious pandemonium in the company and further led workers into the premises and offices where they destroyed property massively. Nnah revealed further that the company had in the process lost property worth more than N400, 000, 000 (Four Hundred Million Naira) while the international passports of one of the managers, his wife and two children (Koreans) were stolen.
Explaining why the workers were sacked in the first place, the Operations Manager said: “We had a meeting after the first disruption of production by Usangusung. The meeting ended very peacefully and we were to meet again a week after. But barely one hour after our meeting and agreement with both the branch and national executives of the Union, Usangusung went back into the factory and sparked off yet another protest.”
Nnah added: “We knew it was getting out of hand and so we issued some of the ring leaders another query, having issued them one on January 25, 2016 to explain the reason behind their actions. It is against the rules and regulations of the company for any nonMaintenance worker to enter the Power House and switch off or switch on the light. But they bluntly told us that not even the Managing Director of the company could issue them query. They told us that they are answerable only to the National President of their Union, that they are not answerable to the Managing Director or any officers of the company. At this point we had to do the needful as it was gradually shifting from the normal unionism to hooliganism, hence, the termination of their services from the company.”
He said, the sacked workers on February 1, 2016, grouped and in the company of miscreants, stormed the company and chased workers out of the office and factory while they went on to destroy properties worth several hundreds of millions in the process.
The company expressed worry over the sudden silence and nonchalant attitude shown by the National President, NUCFRLANMPE, Mr. Boniface Isiok, alleging that when the problem started, the national president, Comrade Isiok was invited to step in and intervene in the issue before it got out of hand but the manner he responded clearly showed that he was not interested in whatever havoc befell the company and its staff. It was also alleged that this might be a tactic by Isiok whose tenure is ending soon to discredit the candidacy of one Mr. Lazarus Okpara, a staff of Linda Manufacturing staff who incidentally is the present Deputy National President of the Union but vying for the post of the presidency in the next elections which is just around the corner.
Nnah said that one of reason listed for the workers’ protest was ‘over target’ and this, he noted, is an issues that was agreed upon since January 2015, with signed document which the same Comrade Isiok was a party to, He then wondered, why workers were now protesting over the issue more than a year after the target was increased.