Abuja Hotel Staff Rebuff TUC, NLC Bid to Unionize Amid Picket

On Monday, employees of the Abuja Continental Hotel publicly rejected attempts by the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to unionize them, chanting "No to union" during a picket. The labour centres had initiated the protest, alleging anti-labour practices by the hotel management. However, the workers, ostensibly the beneficiaries of the unions' action, stated they had neither requested nor desired such intervention, expressing no interest in joining any union.

Affiliates of the TUC and NLC had previously accused the hotel's management of infringing on workers' rights to unionize and engage in collective bargaining. Yet, some staff members present during the picketing voiced their exclusion from the dispute, questioning the rationale behind organised labour's action purportedly on their behalf. Workers held up placards displaying messages like: “The union are not representing us” and “We did not invite or request union representation. We are comfortable discussing our employment matters directly; TUC does not speak for us.”

Samuel Esiakpoyere, speaking on behalf of the workers, informed journalists that employees were completely unaware of any alleged communications or disagreements between the unions and the hotel administration. He stated, “To the best of our knowledge, this matter affects us. If there are correspondences, how many? How have they engaged these stakeholders? We have not seen anything. As we are talking, we have not seen anything. If there were correspondences and there were disagreements, we need to be involved because the whole thing is about us. We were not carried along. We are not interested.”

Esiakpoyere further argued that the workers believed management was actively striving to improve their welfare. He cautioned that picketing the hotel could adversely impact its business operations, ultimately harming the very employees the unions claimed to be defending. “The management, they are doing their best, and we know that whatever we are going through is going to be a lot better. It’s going to be a lot better. We don’t want the union to kill us in trying to help us. If truly, the agenda that they are here for is to help us, you don’t have to kill us. You don’t have to stop the business. You don’t have to destroy everything because you want to make a point. It doesn’t work that way. To the best of my knowledge, I do not know who they are talking about. That is all I have to say. We are saying no to unionisation,” he declared.

Conversely, the TUC dismissed the workers' public rejection, asserting that it did not represent the views of all employees. The union maintained that numerous workers had expressed interest in joining unions but were allegedly facing intimidation. Nuhu Toro, the TUC General Secretary, explained that the labour centre had initially pursued dialogue with the hotel management. He detailed that a letter was sent on August 4, proposing discussions on the alleged violations of workers' rights. According to Toro, the management responded, indicating their unavailability for discussions until late November, citing ongoing renovation work at the hotel.

Toro expressed his dismay, saying, “And that is why we are here. But to show that we are peaceful people, that we are concerned about the progress of the organisation, we wrote to the hotel sometime on the 4th of August, inviting them for a discussion to see a peaceful way of resolving this issue amicably. But to our surprise, the management of Abuja Continental wrote us back to say, owing to the renovation exercise going on, they might not be available to discuss with us until the end of November. How does that make sense to you? We are talking about workers’ rights being violated. We are talking about workers being treated as slaves, and you are postponing it until the renovation is done.”

He continued, highlighting the urgency of the matter: “Invariably, which means that by the time they are done with the renovation, all our workers will have died. And it’s against that background that we are here to exercise our fundamental right and press on our demand that they have a right to unionisation and collective bargaining. More so, they also have a right to enjoy Section 40 of the Constitution that allows them to freely associate. That’s why we are here.”

Toro refuted claims from some hotel management members that they were unaware of the correspondence. He asserted that the TUC possessed documentary evidence of its engagements with the company. “No, but that is not true. I can share with you the letter we sent to them, and I can also share their response to us. We have also availed the security agencies of all these correspondences, the police and the DSS, so that they can understand the true picture that we had made efforts in the spirit of good faith to have a frank discussion with them on what the issues are. But they have vehemently reneged, and it is against that background that we are here,” he concluded.