Trade Union Congress (TUC) on Friday re-elected its President, Mr Festus Osifo, for another four-year tenure in the office.
By Joan Nwagwu
Trade Union Congress (TUC) on Friday re-elected its President, Mr Festus Osifo, for another four-year tenure in the office.
Osifo and 18 other executives were returned to the office unopposed at the first Quadrennial Delegates Congress and 20th Anniversary of TUC in Abuja.
It would be recalled that Osifo and others were elected into the office in 2021.
Osifo, while speaking on behalf of the executives, commended the delegates for the confidence they have in them, promised to take the labour movement to greater heights.
He added that the TUC under his leadership would also strengthen workers welfare and address issues of unionisation amongst others.
“I wish to make this singular promise that we will never let you down; that we will work day and night with the respective affiliates and state councils as well as the Women’s Commission to ensure that the plight of Nigerian workers remains a going concern.
“I will ensure that the welfare of the Nigerian workers remains sacrosanct, that we deepen the issue of remuneration and welfare much more than we have ever done before.
“I can confirm to you that this evening, you have elected men of timber and calibre, astute unionists, experienced unionists, people that work in different strata of the Nigerian society, men and women that will be there to ensure that the mandate given to us is continuously sustained.
“We will continuously push for the issues that affect you on a daily basis.We want to assure our past leaders that the confidence that is reposed in us, that the battle that they have passed through secessions to us today, that we will not let them down,” he said.
He assured all that the new executives would continue to advocate issues that would better the lives of its members.
“We will continuously advocate for those companies who are still preventing workers from unionising. We will take the battle to them. For those affiliates that need great assistance, and those that need total support, we will be there for you.”
Osifo recalled that TUC was able to bring in about 10 new affiliates as pledged in the last three years.
“We are going to push that even further to have much more membership to the affiliates and bring in much more affiliates into the TUC.
“For us, we believe that our strength is in our number, so we aspire to grow much more further than we did in the last three years. So, those unions that need more membership, we will push for them.
“Those unions that are not as strong as the big ones, we will give them the requisite support,”he said.(NAN