An appeal by Governor Bassey Otu to civil servants in Cross River to shelve their planned strike action has fallen on deaf ears as workers, Monday, began a 2-day warning strike over non-implementation of the N70, 000 minimum wage in the state.
Recall that Governor Otu had, last week, through his deputy, Rt Hon Peter Odey, appealed to workers not to embark on the said strike.
“Governor Otu prioritises the welfare of the workforce. In light of this, I appeal to the leadership of organized labor, along with all affiliates of the NLC and TUC, to suspend their planned state-wide strike. I enjoin them to support the Governor in his quest to improve the lot of our people,” he said.
Odey insisted that Governor Otu was committed to improving conditions for both serving and retired workers, and enumerated such conditions to include clearing backlog of gratuities, regularising pension payments, and implementing overdue worker promotions, adding that Cross River State was committed to paying even above the recommended N70,000 new national minimum wage.
This did not go down with the organised labour, which wasted no time in shutting down all government establishments, schools and offices.
The labour leaders said the general congress had extensively deliberated on the issue and resolved to proceed with the warning strike because, according to him, government was not forthcoming with how to implement the new minimum wage in the state.
Our reporter who went round Calabar, the state capital on Monday to monitor compliance, said worker elected to remain indoors till Wednesday when normal activities would resume.