I don’t want to be remembered for my many fights — Obaseki

The Organised Labour has not been served any court not to proceed with the strike that commenced on Tuesday, President of Trade Union Congress, TUC, Festus Osifo, has said. 

 Osifo stated this in an interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Wednesday.

He said, “As we speak today, we don’t have service of any court order. If you procure court order, even if you procure it at midnight, you need to serve it on the party and I will tell you that we don’t have it. They should bring proof of service on the TUC and the NLC.”

The organised labour embarked on nationwide strike on Tuesday to seek justice over an assault on NLC President, Joe Ajaero, in Owerri, the Imo State capital, on November 1, 2023 when he was about to lead a protest against alleged anti-labour practices by the Governor Hope Uzodimma-led administration.

Workers in several states joined the strike, shutting down activities at several government-owned facilities.

The TUC President also knocked the government for “perpetually violating” court orders while expecting other institutions to obey the judiciary.

The labour leader further said once the unions receive a court order on the ongoing strike, they would liaise with their lawyers and take a decision.

“We have a state that refuses to obey court orders. You now expect others to obey court orders but once we see it, we are responsible institutions, we will not say because the Federal Government continuously violate court institution, we will examine it and if it is the right thing for us to do, yes, we will,” he said.

Osifo tackled the government for always rushing to court to obtain restraining orders to stop labour’s action instead of engaging the unions and addressing their grievances. 

According to him, obtaining court orders is not good labour relations on the part of the government.

Recall the presidency and the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation had berated Labour for embarking on the indefinite action despite a “restraining order issued last week by Justice Benedict Backwash Kanyip of the National Industrial Court”, saying labour must respect court orders.