Nigeria: Trade Unions Act Amendment, Demonstrations Planned

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) declared this week that it will conduct a peaceful rally in Abuja on Tuesday August 24th to demonstrate against President Obasanjo's proposed amendments to the Trade Unions Act. The new Bill would deregister the NLC as the only central labour organisation and add new restrictions to strike action by trade unions. Announcing the rally, the leader of the NLC said that they believe the proposed Bill to be a "violent abuse of the constitutional rights of workers to belong to trade unions."