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May Day 2025: CODIN seeks fresh strategies for better labour welfare
The Coalition for Democracy in Nigeria (CODIN), a group advocating for human rights and anti-corruption, has urged Nigerian workers to collaborate with the government to establish a new framework for fostering hope, good governance, and ensuring labor reaps the full benefits of the nation’s wealth.
In a statement celebrating the 2025 May Day, CODIN President Comrade Mashood Erubami praised workers for their dedication and sacrifices over the past year, which have significantly contributed to the nation’s productivity, growth, and development.
He encouraged workers to renew their commitment to rebuilding the nation for peace and to adopt new strategies for securing better welfare for their members. Erubami also highlighted the historical significance of Workers’ Day, which originated in 1886 following the efforts of the American Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions to implement an eight-hour workday starting May 1, 1886.
Erubami a 2027 House of Representatives aspirant for Egbeda, Ona Ara Federal Constituency said, “The celebration of workers day on every May 1, derived its form from the consequences of violent clashes between labour and police during the Haymarket Riot in 1886, when thousands of workers in Chicago took to the street to agitate for better welfare of workers, against multiple hourly working per day and demanded for a gazetted eight hourly work per day. Workers that led to bringing the employer to terms and settled for eight hours with improved work standards.
“Ever since, many countries had joined in accepting this work conditions while the day is declared as free working day to celebrate workers hard work and contributions to society, particularly the recognition of eight hours of work per day instead of the multiple hours working per day as it were.”
The group also warned workers not to depend on securing welfarism through only economism, urging them to demand “for a new approach of negotiating salary and improved welfare through tackling the effects of the causes of their underdevelopment and poor remuneration.”
The group further advised workers to note the reasons why they have been celebrating their days amid excruciating poverty and undervalued incomes is a result of not dealing with the causes of their problems.
The Democratic Coalition also reiterated that since Nigeria joined in the global celebration, it has been regrettable that employers of labour have not seen the day as a day for capacity strengthening for the workers and for promoting increased productivity through boosting workers income for better life.
“Regrettably too, Nigerian Workers have not used the day to agitate for improved welfare and good standard of life for their members who step out of different social economic crises as a result of poor remuneration, collapsing values of their salaries and consequential poverty of material well-being.
The group pointed out that workers that are the hen, which lay the golden eggs upon which the employers hibernate should consider everything wrong that nothing is being done during these annual rituals by the employers to strengthen their capacity for increased productivity through boosting of their incomes by not jettison of new tactics and strategies of dealing with the causes of their sufferings in the midst of plenty.
The group pointedly declared that every worker’s day to be celebrated as a public holiday, should be used as a day for political rallies to restate the gains from the achievements of the working class and as most appropriate time to recognize the contributions of workers to society while honouring the struggles of compatriots who fought and sacrificed for better working conditions and labour rights.
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