Chukwudi Achife, Enugu

The union also ordered its members to bar BPE personnel and other ‘foreigners’ from gaining access to PHCN installations across the country until the dispute is resolved.

The directive which was signed by Akoh Cyprian Ndubuisi, assistant general secretary of Edo/Delta/Eastern unit of the Generation/Transmission companies of the PHCN said the directive became inevitable following the unwarranted violation by the BPE of an agreement earlier reached between it and the union not to wind up the company except through a court process.

He said, the BPE had rather than keep the promise and invite the union for further negotiations , sought to circumvent statutory negotiation procedures through the use of a 23-man presidential committee on the settlement of labour issues prior to the privatization of the PHCN. He added that the union refused to send representatives to the committee since it "was a negation of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) convention which says that an ad-hoc presidential committee cannot replace a statutory negotiation machinery.

"Again our employer is PHCN and not presidential committee. It will, therefore, be foolish of us to negotiate with a body that we know has no contractual obligation with us", the Union argued.

The union said despite its opposition, the committee continued working without regard to the interest of the workers "thus confirming government’s insincerity and unseriousness to the plight of workers" and heightening fears that the PHCN workers may suffer the same fate as their NITEL and maritime colleagues when their outfits fell under the BPE hammer.

It said that following the advertisement placed for the BPE for the sale of some units of the PHCN, the union through its lawyers placed a caveat in several national dailies on account of its pending suit challenging the sale of the company without settling labour matters.

The union said: "Instead of putting necessary machinery for the negotiation, government has again gone ahead to advertise the PHCN for sale without resolving labour issues. We want to seize this medium to state unequivocally that the union is not party to this development and shall use all available labour means to fight this injustice, because the fate of thousands of PHCN workers is at stake and their years of meritorious services to this nation should not be wished away.

"All PHCN workers are by this medium directed to resist vehemently through whatever labour means any sight of any foreign intruder into any of our premises, in strict compliance with the national headquarters directive vide General Circular No 36/2007 of 18/1/2007 while reiterating that our ‘NO PHCN NO WORK ORDER’ remains in force".

Stating, however, that it was not against the privatization policy of government but was interested in securing the interest of workers under the arrangement, the union urged the BPE to obey court orders, adding: "Nigerian workers blood suckers’agent should note that the interlocutory injunction of a court against the sale of PHCN is still in force and as such all actions taken by the BPE afterwards amount to a contempt which the courts should not ignore if the Nigerian judiciary is indeed the last hope of the oppressed to get justice".