NIGERIAN LABOR DISCONTENT BECOMING CONTAGIOUS, BUT

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 ABUJA 001307

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR DRL, AF/W
PLEASE PASS USTR FOR AGAMA
DOL FOR SUDHA HALEY
DOC FOR 3317/ITA/OA/KBURRESS
TREASURY FOR DAN PETERS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ELAB EAID PGOV PREL PHUM ASEC NI
SUBJECT: NIGERIAN LABOR DISCONTENT BECOMING CONTAGIOUS, BUT
GON ONLY PROVIDING TRIAGE

REF: A. ABUJA 1289

B. ABUJA 1191

C. ABUJA 1117

D. ABUJA 821

E. ABUJA 609


1. (U) Summary: Frustration and discontent in the labor
sector was at its most contagious state during the week of
July 6-10, as the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and its
affiliates led demonstrations -- and inspired others to do so
-- within education, health, and media institutions across
the country. All of these sectors have conveyed similar
appeals to the GON to honor its commitments made more than
six years ago to increase wages, pay arrears in monetized
benefits, and institutional development. The latest strikes
and threats of strikes follow others that have taken place
across the country within the past seven months, as well as
NLC labor rallies (reftels B, C, and D),with a focus on the
GON's unresponsiveness and inability to honor its commitments
on a variety of union demands, particularly salary levels.
Combined, labor unrest appears to be increasing in strength
and intensity, while the GON's response has been at best, a
piecemeal triage of promises and requests for more time. As
a result, discontent within Nigeria's labor sector seems to
be nearing a peak, increasing the potential for nation-wide
shutdowns and by extension, the threat to services in the
health and education sectors and with media institutions.
The Mission will monitor these strikes closely and also
monitor the potential for violence. Thus far, no violence
has been reported. End Summary.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
EDUCATION: Academic Unions Capitalize on NLC Momentum
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


2. (U) About a week after the NLC's last coordinated protest
rally in Borno State (reftel A) in June, the ASUU embarked on
its own strike, to demand better funding for education
programs, adequate renumeration of staff, autonomy and
democratization of university decision-making, and
reinstatement of the sacked lecturers due to retirement age.
Senior Staff Association of Universities President, Adewusi
Promise, told LabOff on July 10 that the demands date back to
a 2001 agreement with the GON to negotiate these same issues.
The strike, which has now entered its fourth week, is not
supported by all university staff across the country (ref A)
but its timing--during end of semester examinations--was
instrumental in eliciting the only tangible GON response in
the last seven months to labor union strikes, threats of
strikes, and protest rallies across the country. On July 2,
the GON announced through its Minister of Education, Dr. Sam
Egwu, and later Minister of Information, Dora Akunyili that
the GON has agreed to ASUU's demands for academic freedom,
specifically that university boards will have more
non-government members than government members; approved the
change in retirement age from 65 to 70 years-old; and a 40%
increase in ASUU member salaries.


3. (U) ASUU continued its strike to meet its final demand for
more government-funded university programs, but Egwu
responded to local reporters on July 13 that "the GON has
conceded enough" and that ASUU members "should consider the
plight of the students and go back to the classroom because
only students and their parents are being punished, not the
government." (Note: Several university students in Abuja,
some of whom work for Mission Nigeria, told LabOff that
students, but not their parents, fully support the strike
even though their exams have been delayed as a result. End
Note.) ASUU issued a July 11 statement, which warned that
"the strike had just begun" and appealed to Nigerians to
"understand and prepare for a very long strike since it would

ABUJA 00001307 002 OF 004


not back down from its final demand for better university
funding. Meanwhile, Trade Union Congress (TUC) President
Peter Esele and General Secretary John Kolawole issued their
own national communiqu on July 11, which stated that "Egwu
is not capable to lead the education sector" and requested
that the GON "immediately remove Egwu from office or face the
wrath of labor."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
-
HEALTH: Medical Doctors and Administrative Staff Carry
Momentum
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
-


3. (U) Around the same time as ASUU's national strike, the
Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria (MHWUN) warned
the Ministry of Health on July 6 that it would be embarking
on its own strike to protest the GON's failure to pay more
than six years in arrears of monetized fringe benefits to
health workers, dating back to a 2003 agreement between the
GON and MHWUN. On July 9, public hospitals across the country
became paralyzed, shutting down emergency wards, preventing
treatment of admitted patients, and closing general practice
clinics. Local press reported that people were seen wheeling
their sick family members out of hospitals. MHUN General
Secretary Marcus Omakuale told LabOff on July 10 that "we are
very sorry for the strain and suffering of those affected by
the absence of medical care, but after six years of
unresponsiveness, we had no choice." Omakuale told LabOff
that the GON only agreed to pay 50% of its arrears, but did
not make a commitment to pay the balance. He also conveyed
that "the GON's piecemeal response to Nigeria's labor
problems is completely the wrong strategy and needs more of a
holistic and centralized approach to working with labor."


4. (U) Less than a week after the MHWUN strike, on July 13,
the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) (a confederation of
Nigerian government doctors) threatened to join their health
worker colleagues if the GON failed to meet their demands for
better pay and improved conditions of service for government
doctors. NMA National Secretary, Dr. Kenneth Okoro,
announced to reporters that the NMA is giving the GON a
28-day extension to consider their demands, which according
to Okoro, have been ignored for over 11 years. In an obvious
attempt to rally the public, GON Minister of Health Babatunde
Osotimehin and Special Adviser to the Minister of Media Niyi
Ojuolape announced through various media outlets they are
"calling on all Nigerians to join their plea for the NMA not
to embark on a strike that could result in unnecessary loss
of life and great pain." Osotimehin also announced that an
agreement would be finalized by the end of September (2009).


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
MEDIA: Entertainers and Journalists Join the Choir
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


5. (U) State owned radio and television stations threatened
to join the Radio, Television, Theatre, and Arts Workers
Union of Nigeria (RATTAWU),Nigeria Union of Journalists
(NUJ) and Amalgamated Union of Public Corporations, Civil
Service Technical and Recreational Services Employees
(AUPCTRE) in their one week-old strike, protesting
non-payment of arrears in monetized benefits owed to its
members. RATTAWU General Secretary Henry Odugala told LabOff
that they have been waiting for more than five years for the
GON to pay its arrears, and that union leaders like himself
are under tremendous pressure "as members seem to have
reached their boiling point." Odugala also informed LabOff
that the GON summoned RATTAWU for meetings, where they

ABUJA 00001307 003 OF 004


promised to pay arrears in one week. On July 14, Odugala
told LabOff that he called off their strike after the GON
gave into their demands, but pointed out that his success
"does not necessarily translate into success for the larger
good of labor." He explained that "the GON's eleventh hour
approach to solving labor unrest is short-sighted and in the
long run not doing any of us any good."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
GON RESPONSE: An 11th Hour Take it or Leave It
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


6. (U) According to all of the union leaders with whom LabOff
spoke, (NLC, TUC, RATTAWU, ASUU, MHWUN),the GON has made
many promises over the last several months, but minimal
concessions. Back in January, NLC General Secretary John
Odah told LabOff that organized labor was willing to give the
Ministry of Labour and Productivity the benefit of the doubt
and at least six months to reorganize itself under its then
new Minister, Adetokunbo Kayode, appointed in December 2008.
According to several of LabOff's Labor Ministry contacts,
private individual meetings took place with the NLC and other
protesting unions over the last several months to try to
resolve their disputes, but it was not until the first two
weeks of July, (almost six months to the day of Minister
Kayode's appointment) when the ASUU strike inspired seven
more unions to strike or threaten strikes, that the GON
responded with proposed deliverables. Most of the GON's
concessions were made in the first two weeks of July when
labor unions were at their loudest and most organized across
various sectors. So far, the GON through its Labor, Health,
and Education ministries approved of partial payment of
arrears in monetized benefits, better pay, and changes to the
retirement age, with a commitment to allocate more in next
year's budget.


7. (U) The GON's response appeared to satisfy RATTAWU and its
sister media unions, NUJ and AUPCTRE, both of which called
off their strikes. For Nigeria's public education and health
unions, however, both have decided to continue their three
week-old strikes with no end in sight until all of their
demands, some dating back more than six years, are fully met.
Using the media, GON Health and Education Ministers have
expressed the most vocal of GON responses to the striking
unions, heavily criticizing them for inflicting "punishment"
and "death" on Nigerians. On July 17, the Industrial
Arbitration Panel (IAP),which serves as the GON's tripartite
dispute settlement and conflict resolution court, ordered
ASUU members back to work while assuring that "no members
would be victimized or sacked by government as a result of
the strike." Health Minister Osotimehin took his battle
against the health worker unions to the National Assembly's
House Committee on Health on July 16, requesting that they
intervene, while on July 17 the Secretary of Bauchi State
government was heard on VOA's Hausa Radio Service asserting
that "absolutely no negotiations will take place" and then
demanding that "those considering strikes immediately turn in
the keys to their cars, homes, and offices."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
How Labor Strikes Affect U.S. Interests
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


8. (U) The USG has a compelling interest in fostering harmony
among Nigeria's tripartite dialogue partners: labor,
government, and the private sector. Mission Nigeria's
Mission Strategic Plan (MSP) sets forth America's partnership
with Nigeria on four key strategic areas, three of which
apply directly to Nigeria's labor sector: Investing in
People, Economic Growth, and Governing Justly and
Democratically. As the above union demands and strikes

ABUJA 00001307 004 OF 004


clearly indicate, a serious lack of transparency, good
governance, and investment in the workforce, prevents a fully
functioning labor sector in Nigeria. In turn, a
deteriorating labor sector will impinge on the country's
ability to provide for sufficient economic growth to help
meet the basic needs of the population through greater
employment opportunities and a stronger social safety net.
Stronger economic growth through a thriving stronger labor
sector, however, can result in a more transparent environment
for business and provide the basis for empowering greater
democratic participation. This has been clearly the case
with the NLC and its union affiliates that have joined forces
with a civil society coalition comprised of the Nigerian Bar
Association, people with disabilities, women and youth
groups, and the media, in an effort to inform citizens of
their rights in general and on electoral reform specifically.
They also plan to carry out civic and voter education
activities in the lead up to the 2011 elections.


9. (U) Comment: As reported in refs B, C, and D, a
structured and functioning tripartite dialogue is clearly
lacking and sorely needed in Nigeria. The GON's ad-hoc and
piecemeal approach to its labor sector and the private
sector's aversion to government interference has created a
fractured labor sector, the result of which has been perhaps
the most pervasive labor unrest since 2007, when Nigeria's
petroleum sector labor unions caused the country to nearly
shut down as a result of its nation-wide strikes. As all of
the unions' Secretaries General explained to LabOff over the
last several months, a more holistic approach is needed in
Nigeria to prevent the kind of labor unrest currently
spreading across the country. This sentiment has also been
echoed by ILO Director in Nigeria Sina Chuma-Mkandawire and
in LabOff's recent meeting on July 9 with ILO-Geneva Director
of Social Dialogue Tayo Fashoyin (septel),who said that "the
current scenario of GON's uncoordinated and individual
bargaining with Nigeria's labor unions is unacceptable and is
in great need of an established structure of tripartite
dialogue if Nigeria hopes to evolve economically."


10. (SBU) Comment continued: Besides the myriad of other
problems Nigeria confronts, the inability of Nigeria's
government, private sector, and workers to understand each
other and find mutually sustainable solutions is yet another
factor preventing the country from realizing its full
potential for sustainable growth. Engaging in structured
dialogue may be the first step not only to work out these
differences, but in doing so, to create the basis for
democratic governance and build a resilient labor market that
contributes to long-term social and economic stability and
peace. Unfortunately, the current road taken by all members
of Nigeria's labor sector is having the opposite effect,
today affecting the education and health of its citizens, and
tomorrow leading to larger social and economic development
problems that Nigeria can ill afford. End Comment.


11. (U) This cable was coordinated with Consulate Lagos.
SANDERS