Workers of the Abuja Continental Hotel on Monday openly rejected moves to unionise them, chanting “No to union” as the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria and the Nigeria Labour Congress picketed the hotel over alleged anti-labour practices.
The unusual confrontation created a fresh twist in the labour dispute, as the workers whom the unions said they were protesting to protect insisted that they had not asked for the intervention and were not interested in joining any union.
The TUC and NLC, through their affiliates, had accused the hotel management of denying workers the right to unionise and engage in collective bargaining.
But some of the workers who spoke during the picketing exercise said they were not carried along in the dispute and questioned why organised labour had embarked on an action purportedly on their behalf.
Workers displayed placards with messages including: “The union are not representing us”, “We did not invite or request union representation. We are comfortable discussing our employment matters directly; TUC does not speak for us.”
