The Lagos State Council of Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) has reassured its members that its housing project would soon be complete, and warned oppressive employers to repent forthwith.

In a new year message delivered by the Council’s chairman, Comrade Gbenga Ekundayo, TUC reaffirmed its commitment to vigorously pursue its Housing projects for workers as a way of addressing the housing challenges its members are facing in Lagos State.

“I wish to report that we are making serious progress in that direction and we are strongly committed to moving to site in the new year upon completion of all necessary documentation. We have physically identified the location and have received the electronic survey. The developers should present designs and pricing soon. Therefore, I want to urge all our members to position themselves properly to enable them to tap from these housing projects.

Ekundayo called for stronger ties between TUC and other labour Unions particularly in the private sector and frowned at every unhealthy relationship between employers and Employees, saying, the relationship between employees and Employers in the economy in recent times can best be described as toxic, based on the attack on workers rights in the workplace by some employers who willfully push workers’ rights to the back burner.

“We shall in the new year help to strengthen all warn out ties and help build bridges of the relation between the concerned unions and their management. This, we believe, will further help to promote productivity as well as industrial peace and harmony.

“TUC Lagos State Council shall throw its full weight behind affiliate unions in Lagos, particularly where there is a high volume of anti-labour activities and practices. We shall provide all the needed support for concerned affiliates.

“We shall ensure we carry out a proactive oversight functions as well as pay critical attention to government policies and programmes that may impact the general welfare and working conditions of our members as we approach the electioneering period,”

It council stressed that its quest and pursuit for a permanent Secretariat was still very much on course, thus, it shall do everything humanly possible to ensure they leave its rented apartment this year 2022.

As part of its commitment to ensure that members are not stranded in the present harsh economic environment that has eroded the value of financial resources, the State Council proactively had set up an Agric Cooperative Society aimed at empowering its members in Lagos.

“We have also extended our hands of partnership and collaboration to the Lagos State Ministry of Agric as well as other strategic Social partners in the Agric Value Chain. We intend to commence operation in the new year and we are also using this opportunity to extend our invitation to other partners to key into the opportunities that this venture will provide.

“We are equally committed to our capacity building programme for all Affiliates of TUC in Lagos State. This we have done through training and retraining programmes for Union Leaders in the State and we intend to continue in that direction.

“As a State Council, we firmly subscribe to the fact that only proper education sets people up to grow personally, professionally, and socially because it helps them to solve problems and help others. We shall continue to invest in the education of our members. On covid-19 and the new omicron, we understand its implications in the world, but we want to call on the State Government not to press the panic button yet.”

TodayNG