Rivers State Local Government workers across the 23 Local Government Areas of the state have threatened to embark on a solidarity strike on Monday, September 21.
They are demanding the payment of 13 months unpaid salaries of over 100 workers of Ahoada West LGA.
The workers, through its union, National Union of Local Government Employees, said the strike was inevitable following a deadlock between the workers and the Ahoada West council boss, Hope Ikiriko.
Speaking in Port Harcourt on Thursday, the President, National Union of Local Government Employees, Clifford Paul, said all dialogue initiatives to mitigate the impasse between the council and the workers proved abortive as the council insisted on withholding the salaries of the affected workers.
He said, “We have exhausted all channels of dialogues, we have written to the appropriate authorities informing them that we would embark on this strike if nothing was done within 14 days and the ultimatum we gave has elapsed.
“Rather, the Executive Chairman of Ahoada West, Hope Ikiriko is using diversionary tactics and we have agreed to embark on an indefinite strike on the 23 LGAs beginning from Monday, 21 September, 2020.”
On his part, the Executive Chairman, Ahoada West LGA, Hope Ikiriko, said the affected workers were ghost workers.
“Nobody should push me to the wall, we have evidence, I repeat we have evidence. They should come up with a position to say we employed or we didn’t employ them,” he added.
