Federal Palace Hotel: the Struggle Continues!

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fph.worekers-protestWorkers in the Federal Palace Hotel, Lagos successfully fought to win the right to belong to unions in January. After four days of mass protest, during which the workers literally shutdown the hotel, management signed an agreement with the Hotel and Personal Services Senior Staff Association (HAPSSSA) and the National Union of Hotel and Personal Services Workers (NUPHSW), in the last week in January. But this has not stopped the spate of brutality, intimidation and total disrespect for workers in Federal Palace Hotel.

Barely three weeks after the agreement was reached, which included the deduction of six days’ wages from the workers’ January pay check, the national leaderships of NUPHSW & HAPSSSA have had to cry out against the terrible state of oppression that the workers continue suffer. For years, workers have been denied their annual leave and promotions, with impunity.

There is no explicitly stated conditions of service and termination of employment without the payment of severance benefits to boot, has been the norm. Workers are slapped and deductions, ostensibly for taxes from workers’ wages are simply appropriated by management.

After the January triumphant struggle, the unions tried to get the hotel to reach a collective agreement that would address these and several other issues. But management has been recalcitrant, refusing to meet with the unions for negotiations. Obviously, union recognition was just a tactic to stop the protest from below in January from getting out of hand.

This situation cannot be allowed to continue. “An injury to one is an injury to all”. The two trade union federations (NLC and TUC) musts step in now. FPH must be shutdown indefinitely with mass action of the trade union movement as a whole, until workers’ rights are respected

Socialist Worker and its supporters are committed to the struggle of FPH workers until victory. We will not retreat; we will not surrender. The time to fight and defeat these gross attacks on the workers is now!

– Nnamdi Ikeagu

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