This year's May day with its theme "REVITALISING DEMOCRACY AND SAFEGUARDING THE FUTURE", symbolizes the collective struggles of the hero’s past, who went through severe pains in their bid to enthrone an egalitarian Society that recognizes, respects and rewards the immense contribution of the proletariat.
Beginning from the dark ages of employer and employee relationship, which subjected the worker to toil and sweat for fourteen hours every day to the time this slavish working hour was reduced to the present eight hours per day, the labour movement , has proved a veritable and reliable ally in the defence and propagation of the interest of the down trodden masses.
For example in 1945, during the famous coal miners strike in Enugu, the world was made to see the oppressive and obnoxious working condition Nigerians were subjected to by their white colonial masters.
In addition to exposing the ills in the coal mine and the unprovoked Police brutality, the workers under the veteran activist and Father of Nigeria Labour Unionism, Pa Michael Immodu, also used their Action to Support the Nationalistic Movement.
It is rather ironical, that the Labour Movement which played a major role in the attainment of self-rule from imperial Britian has had to lick its wounds in a country that it helped to nurture.
Under many years of Military Dictatorship in the Country, the Organized Labour movement was on the receiving end, undergoing series of re-organization, restructuring and reformation all geared towards whittling down the influence of the union.
Another curious twist in the labour -government relationship, is that in 1978, the Trade Union Degree stipulated one single labour Centre which must exclude Senior Civil Servants. But twenty-eight years after, the labour movement, is in for another struggle with government.
According to the new trade union Amendment Act 2005, Government has seemingly either by act of omission or commission placed legal obstacles to having a virile, robust and militant labour movement.
The question now is, has labour been silenced? Who will speak for the masses of this country? One would have expected that the Present Government which is a by-product of labour and human Rights agitation, which forced the military to abandon power, should have promoted a cordial under-standing with both the human rights groups and organized labour.
While, encouraging government to be more labour friendly, it is equally incumbent on Labour leaders to fight for the welfare of all Nigerian workers.
A situation whereby workers at various levels are paid different minimum wage, and their benefits monetized, is to say the least, discriminatory and unfair. As Nigerian worker celebrate one particularly wants to commend each and ever one of the workers for their level of maturity, which has helped to build a healthy government/ labour atmosphere in the nation.
One recalls that early in the Administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo , the workers understanding and appreciation of lean Financial standing of the nation, and the President's burning desire to revive the decaying infrastructure and bring back sanity into the system that have been dead in corruption and other societal vices, made the workers tighten their belt and gladly accepted in principle the minimum wage for all workers.
But in a manner characteristic of a statement and master strategist, President Olusegun Obasanjo on Saturday, 2nd April, 2005 promised incentives designed to further improve the welfare of workers in the state.
They include the approval given by President Obasanjo for the payment of the harmonized pensions and the five hundred naira difference in the minimum wage to federal workers, with effect from (MAY).
With the renewed partnership between government and labour in the federal level strengthened by the President's latest largesse, it is only natural, that Nigerian workers should continue to give their unalloyed support and loyalty to the administration.