The Trade Union Congress (TUC) on Friday re-elected its President, Comrade Festus Osifo for another term of four years.
Osifo, who is also the President of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, was returned unopposed at the inaugural quadrennial delegates Congress and the 20th anniversary of TUC.
Speaking after his re-election, Osifo appreciated the delegates for the confidence they have in him and 18 other executives and promised to take the labour movement to greater heights, strengthen workers welfare, and address issues of unionisation, among others.
He said, “I wish to make this singular promise that we will never let you down, that we will work day and night with the respective affiliates, the respective state councils and the Women’s Commission to ensure that the plight of Nigerian workers remains a going concern, to ensure that the welfare of the Nigerian workers remains sacrosanct, and that we deepen the issue of remuneration and welfare much more than we have ever done before.
“I can confirm to you that this evening you have elected men of timber and calibre, astute unionists, experienced unionists, people that work in different strata of the Nigerian society, men and women that will be there to ensure that the mandate that was renewed today, the mandate that was given to us today, we will continuously sustain it, we will continuously push for the issues that affect you on a daily basis.
“We want to assure our past leaders that the confidence that is reposed in us, that the battle that they have passed through secessions to us today, that we will not let them down. That we will continuously advocate for issues that will better the lives of our members. We will continuously work with respective affiliates.
“We will continuously advocate for those companies who are still preventing workers from unionising. We will take the battle to them. For those affiliates that need great assistance, that need total support, we will be there for you.”
Speaking to newsmen, Osifo disclosed that in the last three years, TUC was able to bring in about 10 new affiliates. “But we are going to push that even further to have many more members of the affiliates and bring in many more affiliates into the TUC.
“For us, we believe that our strength is in our number, so we aspire to grow much further than we did in the last three years. So those unions that need more membership, we push for them.
“Those unions that are not as strong as the big ones, we will give them the requisite support. Because they said, you are as strong as your weakest link. So we are going to deepen even further.”
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