The Campaign for Democratic and Workers’ Rights, CDWR, has made an eight-point demand to Dura Pack Industry Limited, a member of Lee Group Companies, located at Ikeja industrial area of Lagos State, in order to improve the working conditions at the company.
Describing the working conditions as deplorable, the CDWR called on the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and National Union of Chemical, Footwear and Non-Metallic Workers, NUCFRLANMPE, to support the call for improvement in the working conditions.
The demands made by CDWR are: Improvement in salary and working conditions; provision of safe work tools; end to casualisation and contract staffing and provision of canteen within the company’s premises.
Other demands are to put an end to arbitrary sack and intimidation of workers; respect for the right to unionization; well-equipped sick bay within the factory premises and reduction of work hours from 12 hours to 8 hours.
In a statement issued by its national chairperson, Rufus Olusesan, and the national publicity secretary, Chinedu Bosah, CDWR said the working conditions were typical of those of slavery camps.
At present, the workers have embarked on strike from Monday to protest the poor working conditions.
The group also deplored the insensitivity of the company to the plight of the protesting workers.
It said instead of responding to the demands of the workers, the company “mobilized over 20 armed police officers led by the Area F Police Command who are intimidating the workers.”
The statement issued by CDWR explaining the poor working conditions reads in part: “Typical of slave factory camps, workers in Dura Pack work from Monday to Sunday every week without any rest day and for 12 hours daily; there is no clearly defined condition of service; the wage is poor; workers are not given safety tools to work with; no staff canteen and workers are not allowed to go out at the break period to eat; salaries are determined arbitrarily as salaries are paid without a defined structure etc.
“For more than 10 years, the management has resisted workers’ demand to join the National Union of Chemical, Footwear and Non-Metallic Workers (NUCFRLANMPE).
“The salary of workers are in the range of N20,000 to N30,000 monthly and workers are abandoned when they sustain injury.
“A worker (Mr Chinedu Nwadike) who lost his wife and baby in the process of childbirth was sacked recently after he resumed work having travelled to bury his wife.
“Dura Pack, located at Ikeja industrial area is part of the Lee Group of Companies which is notorious for operating slave factory camps in Nigeria, though not fundamentally different from many other private companies in Nigeria.
“It would be recalled that on September 16, 2002, 37 Nigerian workers lost their lives during a fire outbreak at the West Africa Rubber Limited situated in Ikorodu which is also part of the Lee Group.
“The death occurred because workers on night shift were normally locked up and so when the fire broke out workers were trapped and lives were regrettably lost while many workers sustained different degrees of burns and injury.
“Till this present moment, the company has never been sanctioned in any way.
“The Campaign for Democratic and Workers’ Rights (CDWR) has consistently called on the leadership of the National Union of Chemical, Footwear and Non-Metallic Workers (NUCFRLANMPE) to organize the workers. But the union has failed to do so despite the willingness of the workers to join the union. Workers in Dura Pack are ready to defend their right and interest but in the absence of a serious trade union leadership ready to lead the struggle, workers are at the mercy of management.”
