SALUTATION
On behalf of the National Executive Council (NEC) of the Union, we salute all our members, allies and friends. We extend our seasonal greetings to all Nigerian workers, fraternal industrial unions, Textile Employers Association, governments at all levels, IndustriALL Global Union and its affiliate unions worldwide, the press and all our well wishers. We wish all a prosperous, peaceful and productive 2017.
It is remarkable that the union strived to fulfill its obligations to members in 2016 inspite of the depressed state of the industry. This is reflected in core areas of union’s work namely collective bargaining, job advocacy, job security, conflict resolution, capacity building, health education and improved working conditions among others.
MAJOR ACTIVITIES OF THE UNION IN 2016
1. 11th National Delegates’ Conference
One of the major activities of the union in 2016 was the 11th national delegates’ conference held at the Meena Event Centre, Kano, Kano State from Wednesday 16th – Friday 19th March 2016. The Conference attracted over 500 delegates and observers drawn from textile factories and affiliated self-employed Tailors’ Associations throughout the country and many invited guests. The Conference was declared open by the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, His Excellency, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, GCON represented by the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Aminu Aliyu Bisalla. Special Guests include the host Governor, His Excellency, Executive Governor of Kano State, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje ably represented by the Deputy Governor, Professor Hafiz Abubakar; the President of Nigeria Labour Congress, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, mni and Presidents and General Secretaries of some industrial unions affiliated to the NLC. The Royal Father of the Day was His Highness, Muhammad Sanusi II, CON, Sarkin Kano, the Emir of Kano represented by the Magajin Rarfin Kano, Alhaji Shehu Mohammed. Elder statesman, Alhaji Dr. Yusuf Maitama Sule also addressed the opening ceremony on the unity of Nigeria.
The Conference theme was: Labour and Industry; Back to Basics. The conference compliments President Muhammadu Buhari’s campaign promise with respect to re-industrialization, textile revival and job creation.
The key highlight of the Conference was the election of new National Officers led by Comrade John Adaji (President) and Issa Aremu, mni (General Secretary) to run the affairs of the Union in the next four (4) years. However, the Conference also discussed the state of the economy and the nation and took far reaching resolutions on the critical areas of union work namely collective bargaining, health and safety, workers’ education, Gender, National and global solidarity and the strengthening of the union’s campaign for the revival of textile industry.
2. 28th National Education Conference
The Union in conjunction with Nigeria Textile Garment and Tailoring Employer’s Association (NTGTEA) held its 28th Annual Education conference at Imaguero College Hall, Sapele Road, Opposite Edo Library, Benin City, Edo State from 15 Thursday to Saturday 17th September, 2016. The Theme of the Conference was: “Labour and Industry: Back to Basics in the Era of Change.” The conference attracted 326 participants drawn from textile industries and tailoring sector across the country.
The Objectives of the Conference include;
• To review current industrial policy measures contained in Cotton Textile Garment (CTG) Policy Document and their implementation.
• To provide a platform for ideas on how to promote labour unity in Nigeria.
The immediate past Governor of Edo State, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole and the current Governor Mr. Godwin Obaseki attended the opening session as Special Guests of Honour. Other dignitaries include Professors Dafe Otobo, Abubakr Sokoto of University of Lagos and University of Sokoto respectively, Industry Stakeholders, Labour Activists and Veterans of the union.
3. 2nd World Congress of IndustriALL Global Union
The 2nd World Congress of IndustriALL Global Union took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from Monday 3rd to Friday 7th October, 2016. The Congress with the theme; “Fighting Forward/A Luta Continua” was attended by over 1,500 delegates drawn from 600 affiliate unions from more than 100 countries.
Election
The highpoint of the Congress was election of new officers to run the affairs of the global union in the next four years.
The union’s General Secretary, Comrade Issa Aremu was unanimously elected as a Vice President representing all African manufacturing workers in the Presidency of the global union.
Jörg Hofmann from IG Metall Germany was elected the President.
Other elected Vice Presidents are; Tahar Berberi from Tunisia, Raul Enrique Mathiu from Argentina, Anders Ferbe from Sweden, Carol Landry from the USA, and Aihara Yasunobu from Japan.
IndustriALL Global Union with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, represents 50 million workers in 140 countries in the mining, energy and manufacturing sectors, a new force in global solidarity taking up the fight for better working conditions and trade union rights around the world.
IndustriALL GOALS
The 2nd World Congress reaffirmed commitment to the full implementation of the five strategic goals of IndustriALL Global Union namely; Building Union Power, Confront Global Capital, Defense of Workers’ Rights, Fight Precarious Work and Ensure Sustainable Industrial Development.
4. Defence of Workers Rights
Stop Precarious Work Campaign
Precarious or casual work is the work done by workers under terrible conditions of low pay, delayed payment and general insecurity. Precarious work is becoming the norm in most workplaces in Nigeria with most employers taking advantage of mass unemployment to violate workers’ rights. More and more precarious workers are unable to realize their fundamental rights at work and enjoy essential social rights. The union joined the global campaign against precarious work on Friday October 7, 2016 with rallies in the cities of Kaduna, Lagos and Abuja respectively.
Due to the depressed state of the economy, the challenge has been to defend the existing jobs. Some of the key manufacturing textile industries like Nichemtex Ikorodu temporary closed down due to lack of raw materials and high electricity tariff that is not industry friendly.
5. Sustainable Industrial Development
Africa Industrialisation Day
Africa Industrialization Day (AID) is marked on 20th November each year as declared by UNIDO. It is a day when Governments and other development organizations in African countries generate fresh ideas to stimulate and consolidate Africa’s industrialization process.
Against the background of current economic recession and President Buhari’s administration commitment to economic diversification, the union together with other affiliates under the auspices of IndustriALL Global Union in partnership with Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) organized a Policy Dialogue on Monday November 21st 2016 as part of activities marking the 2016 Africa Industrialisation Day.
The day offers the affiliates of IndustriALL opportunity to advance the goal of the global union to ensure Sustainable Industrial development. The focus was on how to promote beneficiation and transform abundant agricultural and natural resources to finished manufactured goods through valued added production and massive job creation.
The global theme for 2016 Africa Industrialisation Day (AID) was “FINANCING INDUSTRIALIZATION IN AFRICA: CHALLENGES AND WINNING STRATEGIES”. The sub-theme was BACK TO BASICS: REVIVAL OF BASIC INDUSTRIES (Textile, mining Iron and Steel, Oil and Gas) and CREATION OF SUSTAINABLE EMPLOYMENT.
The policy dialogue held on Monday November 21, 2016 at Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre focused on examining the crafted roadmaps of Buhari administration for the revival of the key industrial sectors of the economy such as Textile, Garment, Oil & Gas, Steel, Engineering and Solid Minerals among others. This was preceded by a rally/road show on the streets of Abuja to make case for Africa’s industrialisation. Like the 2015 Africa Industrialisation Day (AID), this year’s AID was remarkable as it attracted Comrades from other African affiliates of IndustriALL namely, Angeline Chitambo, President Zimbabwe Energy Workers Union and Co-Chairman of IndustriALL Global Union, Sub Saharan Africa Region; Kwarko Mensah-Gyakari, National Chairman, Ghana Mine Workers Union (GMWU) and Comrade Knowledge Siriva, National Treasurer of Zimbabwe Energy Workers Union. Details of these are contained in the report of Education/Research Department.
The General Secretary of the Union, Comrade Issa Aremu, mni together with Comrades Angeline Chitambo of ZEWU and Kwarko Mensah-Gyakari of GMWU featured in an NTA live programme (Good Morning Nigeria) on Tuesday November 22nd to make a case for re-industrialisation of the African continent.
IndustriALL Global Union has expressed commitment to partner with the union to make 2017 Africa Industrial Day a major IndustriALL regional campaign for sustainable industrial development in Africa.
6. NEW WAGE INCREASE; 46TH NATIONAL COLLECTIVE
ARGREEMENT
Notwithstanding the current economic challenges and the peculiar operating challenges of the textile sub-sector, it is remarkable that the union sustained the struggle for a living wage for members. We signed the 46th national collective agreement with the Nigeria Textile Garment and Tailoring Employers Association (NTGTEA). The agreement significantly raised wage rate in the industry by 13 percent. 18 and 15 per cent wage increases were achieved in 2012 and 2014 respectively bringing total cumulative wage increase to 46 per cent through the process of collective bargaining. Agreements through bargaining process have therefore brought the minimum wage in the industry to N32,000, about 75 per cent higher than national minimum wage. This outcome is the result of focused leadership, support from our members and the cooperation of the employers. However given the massive devaluation of the Naira and attendant inflation, the industry minimum pay is yet to take our hard working members out of poverty. This is why we support the demand of NLC for a new national minimum wage.
REVIEW OF NATIONAL MINIMUM WAGE
We hereby call for the urgent review of the National Minimum Wage. The Federal government should immediately constitute the Tripartite Committee for the review of the National Minimum Wage. The point cannot be overstated. The only way to reflate the economy is to increase the wages of workers.
Our experience shows that through dialogue and collective bargaining a new national minimum wage in Nigeria is possible.We thank all our members for the support. We also commend the textile management and employers represented by the Nigerian Textile Garment and Tailoring Employers Association (NTGTEA) for keeping the faith inspite of the challenges.
NATIONAL BUDGET 2017
Textile Union commends President Buhari on the thrust of the 2017 budget. The over N7 trillion budget is focused on reflating the economy through import substitution and patronage of made in Nigeria goods.
President Buhari should urgently convey a stakeholders meeting on revival of industries to realize budget promise of Import substitution. Our union will support President Buhari to realise the vision of Import substitution and jobs creation.
We demand that the disbursement of this huge funds should help to revive local industry, reopen the closed factories and should not be spent to finance frivolous imports and perpetuate unemployment.
We are hopeful that the patronage of made in Nigeria goods policy will reflect in the procurement policy of all agencies of government.
We commend the Nigerian Army for setting a good example with the purchase of made in Aba boots for the military. We urge that this process is further strengthened through patronage of made in Nigeria uniforms and tarpaulin for military operations and the internally displaced peoples’ camps.
We note also that the critical missing link in the 2017 budget is the provision for new minimum wage. The government must make immediate provision for supplementary budget to address this concern.
We call on the Federal government to ensure a holistic implementation of the National Industrial Revolution Plan (NIRP) launched in February 2015.
UNITY OF NIGERIA LABOUR MOVEMENT
To confront global capital, we need a united labour movement not a divided one. The labour movement should be guided by history and avoid the pitfalls of factionalizations of 1978 pre-restructuring era. Labour should not return to the era of “mushroom” house unions and “mushroom” labour centers which cannot effectively represent the working men and women. Labour movement can only effectively represent the workers with unity and unity of purpose and commitment.
Textile Union is therefore for nothing but a united, strong, vibrant all inclusive Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC). Textile union is willing to forgo the legitimate ambitions of its members for a united and vibrant labour movement. To this extent textile union will intensify its efforts in implementing the report of the Reconciliation committee of labour elders chaired by Comrade Alhaji Hassan Sunmonu, first President of NLC and called on all comrades in making this a reality.
Comrade John Adaji. Comrade Issa Aremu mni
PRESIDENT GENERAL SECRETARY
VICE PRESIDENT, IndustriALL Global Union
