C’River govt chastise labour over strike

The Cross River State government has said that she does not know the reason behind the strike action called by the organized labour in the state as the state has met with all the demands of labour.

Speaking with our correspondent on phone on Tuesday, the Chief Press Secretary and Special Adviser on Media to state governor, Mr. Christian Ita, lamented the strike action embarked upon by labour.

“The point is that the labour people even have no business going on strike as government has met all their demands. They asked for promotions and governor has agreed that they should be given and it was given.”

“They turned round and compliant about the way the letters were structured and the language used and we change it. They again turned round and complaint about the content and the government now said Ok no problem, let us change it but they went on strike”

“The question is why are they on strike, strike for what?, do they know why they are on strike or are they on strike because they want to go on strike” the CPS fumed.

The CPS further said, A situation where you have disagreement with your employers and you now switched off your phones as they are doing now, not reachable, what is all these?. He queried, stressing that it was lack of good faith.

He pointed out there are other states where people are owed 5, 6, 7 months salaries and workers are not on strike but here they are now on strike because they want promotion, promotion in a period of recession don’t forget we are in recession, he stated.

Ita said that the state government granted all the request demanded by labour, including the restructuring of the letters, change of language and the content but they still went on strike and regretted the action of labour leaders.

“We granted their requests and the next thing they complaint about letter, we changed and they complaint about the content and we say no problem, we will change it but they went on strike. Not only that, they are unreachable, they switched off their lines.”

Not only the strike, according to the CPS, the labour leaders further jeopardized the security situation of the state. “Yesterday they went and stop people who were about to put diesel in the generator that powered streets light , the laws allow you to go on strike but does not permit you to stop people from going out to do their legitimate duty.”

The street light was not on yesterday. We don’t know why they are on strike as we have met all their demands. Government was ready to pay June salaries but there is no body to process it. We are not convinced why they go on strike,” he lamented.