Health workers vow to continue strike as FG stops salaries

Health workers in the country have vowed not to end the ongoing nationwide strike until the Federal Governemnt addresses all the issues of dispute.

The leadership of the health workers also urged its members not to succumb to the intimidation and tactics of the governemnt.

Health workers under the umbrella body of the Joint Health Sector Union and Assembly of Health Care Professionals (JOHESU) in a statement issued in Abuja yesterday urged its members to press on with the strike action despite the stoppage of their salaries. The union has been on partial strike action since  November 12, 2014.

A statement signed by the  JOHESU President,  Ayuba Wabba, and ten others, “urged all members to remain steadfast and do everything lawful to sustain the struggle, so as to ensue that the present acts of neo-colonialism and slavery in the health sector are put to a stop.”

The group also expressed sadness that the government’s response had failed to meet its expectations.

The group also  accused the government of not taking them serious, thereby foreclosing the possibility of resolving the issues of dispute.

Expressing the union’s frustration at resolving the pending issues, the group had in December, 2015 said: “At the last meeting between the Federal Government and JOHESU on November 19, 2014, the government requested for 24 days to look into all our demands and consequently fixed another meeting for December 15, 2014.  Disappointingly at the meeting, key officials of the Federal Ministry of Health notably the minister, permanent secretary, and directors were conspicuously absent, thereby stalling the meeting.

The group also accused the government of using the police to brutalize its members, an action the JPHESU said was against universal industrial actions.

Wabba, therefore, warned that if the personal attacks and threats continued,  it would lead “to a breakdown of law and order in our health institutions similar to that witnessed in the ABUTH and other hospitals in the 1990s.”

They also added,  “We are disturbed that instead of government showing concern and demonstrating commitment towards bringing an end to the plight of Nigerians and health workers by addressing the issues and restoring public health services, it resorted to acts of intimidation.

The JOHESU president called on all well-meaning Nigerians to call on the Federal Government to live up to its constitutional obligation of respect for the rule of law by implementing the collective agreements reached since 2009 till date.

The group said: “This is a struggle foisted on us and inasmuch as we find it painful to prosecute with our sincere concern for common Nigerians, we are left with no choice but to take this path of struggle as we call on the Federal Government to toe the path of honour and justice.”