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Nigerian media workers who had been locked out by 'The Guardian' management have attracted national, regional and internation sympathy, with the International Federation (IF) urging its member worldwide member unions to express their solidarity with them.
Following a break down of their negotiation with 'The Guardian' over salary increase and better working conditions, the 800 journalists and other workers decided to go on strike on 6 November. The strike has halted the company's print and online publications.
A mediations by the Nigerian Labour Congress had restored hopes among the workers who resumed for work. But the management's about-turn to dismiss the striking journalists on 16 November had aggravated the situation.
“The Guardian management have behaved in a scandalous and provocative way,” the IFJ President Jim Boumelha said in a statement.
“Their attempted use of striker breakers and unfair labour practices and their unwillingness to accept terms negotiated by the Nigerian Labour Congress show the determination of management to break the union and humiliate their workers.”
“This strike is a critical action in which journalists worldwide have a stake. We will not stand by and leave our colleagues at The Guardian at the mercy of the whims of The Guardian publishers,” he added.
The IFJ President had dispatched a letter to the Nigerian Minister of Labour, Labour Hassan Lawal, calling on him to intervene as a matter of urgency to protect the employees’ rights and their jobs and ensure that The Guardian publishers reinstate the sacked journalists and implement terms agreed in negotiations.
The IFJ and its regional arm, the newly-launched Federation of African Journalists, have asked journalists unions to send messages of support to the Nigerian Union of Journalists and to voice their protests to the management of The Guardian by writing to the publishers.
“Our colleagues in Nigeria are in the frontline of a campaign for rights at work and decent conditions in Africa,” said Boumelha. “We will give them our full support.”
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