PTECSSAN bridges communication gap among members, launches world-class website

The Private Telecommunication and Communications Senior Staff Association of Nigeria‎ (PTECSSAN),‎ has inaugurated a website that will bridge communication gap between the union and its members.

Speaking with The Daily Times in Lagos, the National President of (PTECSSAN), Oladapo Sunday Moses‎, said workers in the sector are scattered within and outside the nation, handling projects aimed at making communication easier for Nigerians.

“We felt the need to make reaching us a lot more easier. We launch the website to bridge communication gap between PTECSSAN, its members (existing and new). Majority of companies in our jurisdiction are multinationals, he emphasised.”

He said,”The world has become a global village where you can reach any person anywhere at the same time. Also, for the very first time in the history of Nigeria we have a registered trade union in the private telecommunications’ and communication’s sector.

‎”48 hours after the launch of the website, we have had over 20,000 mention on Twitter, site traffic, which can be monitored even right on the site, and it shows tremendous visit from Europe, America, Asia and others. We have more inquiries now than before even from places and companies we never knew existed in our sector.‎”

He said, “Also, workers in our sector who, by the nature of their jobs spend most of their time working tirelessly with limited or no time to access print media and other platforms like electronic media, will now know their rights to join the union against the wrong notion they were made to believe that they have no right to belong to a union.‎

“Our workers, who are our audience, work tirelessly to make telecommunications and communications available to the populace, as the custodian, operator of the services, the site is like a round peg in a round hole.

“The site is not close or peculiar to our targeted audience only, in few days, researchers looking into the history and origin of Labour and workers right will have our website as a valuable tool for a good result. Our team of experts are looking into the history of the civil service union right from the 1900, the world over and Nigeria in particular. Also, the website will be a good link as our news page will beam live and updated news around the world and in Nigeria.

“Virtually all news feeds will be accessible via our channel. When we say news we mean serious news about important and necessary happenings.‎”

‎”PTECSSAN is dedicated to ensuring that we take care of all of our members, and that their fundamental working rights are met and exceeded. We’re committed to providing you with top notch legal support. Each engagement benefits from our wealth of expertise. We approach every organisation with a focus on integrity, advocacy, and understanding. We fight for you.”

According to him, “We have meticulously brought together,seasoned trade unionists, with several years of experience in labour activism and capacity working as our engine room, to confront daunting challenges workers in private telecommunications and communications organisations are faced with.‎”
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He added that: “Our group comprises of people of integrity and goal-getters, driven by passion to succeed in liberating workers in the telecommunications’ and communication’s sectors of the economy.‎”
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Also, the Secretary General of Nigeria Union of Railway Workers (NUR)‎, ‎Comrade Segun Esan urged all unions to patronise the telecommunications’ union on ICT issues in other to‎ champion the affairs of labour movement.

“It is a new development; and it should not be least expected, based on their expertise and proficiency. Unionism flourishes when you can seamlessly reach out to fellow unions and people that matter in the business of trade unionism and labour movement.”

“This had been my dream, equally encourage others to tap into this opportunity, to build individual websites and social media interactions and further step up our degrees of sophistication to be ICT compliant.”

According to him,”Anything that has to do with media contents, speeches, releases etc, should have a window where all can be showcased; and media colleagues can easily get up- to- date information effortlessly.”

However, the National President of United Labour Congress, (ULC),Comrade Joe Ajaero, commended PTECSSAN‎ for what he called the laudable approach it took, saying, the telecom sector is one of the strongest.

He said,”There must be a special agreement between the union and the employer‎ or else, it will not work, you will have thousands of members, but it won’t reflect in the monies generated.

“If to become a member and you fill online, do the needful, I don’t know whether it can be sabotaged or spied on from rival union. I know of a few past and present.

“We need to tackle censorship, and not reveal our tactics to rival unions, that will moderate us without posting our plans. A lot of work needs to be done, there will be a lot of issues, including membership‎.”

The General Secretary of PTECSSAN, Comrade Abdullahi Okonu‎ said the reasons behind the website‎ is ‎to project the image of the union to the world and to reach out to its current members and the prospective ones.

‎”First and foremost I must state clearly that our union from the day it was registered had its own website. ‎We had to take it down because of some reasons beyond our control but now I can assure you it has come to stay, with no plans on taking it down again,”he said.

He said,”It is important for the Union to have its own website because we need to project the image of our Union to the world and to reach out to our members and the prospective ones.”

According to him,” As a union in telecoms’ sector it is unthinkable and a slap on our union not to be on an ICT platform. It’s our work, hence, we must use it to get across to the world‎.”