Nigeria’s telecommunications sector faces a potential shutdown as workers under the Private Telecommunications and Communications Senior Staff Association (PTECSSAN) began a strike on Monday.
The union, representing over 800 workers across telecom facilities, including IHS and Huawei, issued a seven-day strike notice demanding the reinstatement of sacked workers, recognition of the union, improved working conditions, and the remittance of membership dues.
In a statement, Okonu Abdullahi, the Secretary-General of PTECSSAN, explained that the strike had become unavoidable due to the poor working conditions faced by members and the refusal of employers to recognize the union.
He warned that the strike could severely impact telecom services nationwide, as workers have been instructed not to respond to service outages.
He highlighted that daily outages are common, and without engineers to address them, subscribers in affected areas would experience disruptions.
In response, Gbenga Adebayo, Chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), stated that the group leading the strike was not recognized by ALTON, nor were the companies mentioned, such as MTN, Globacom, Airtel, and 9mobile, members of the association.
Get instant and latest news updates via Our WhatsApp Community or Google News online channel.