Revive coal industry, Enugu workers tell FG

Enugu State workers under the aegis of the Joint Public Service Negotiating Council, on Wednesday, asked the Federal Government to revive coal production in the state.

The workers made the call in a statement issued to commemorate the 2015 Iva-Valley Day.

The day is set aside annually to mark the massacre of coal miners on November 18, 1949, at the Iva-Valley Mine, Enugu, on the orders of colonial masters.

“The council calls for the revitalisation of the coal industry and the opening of the mines to generate income and employment to the people of Enugu State,” the workers said in the statement jointly signed by their chairman, Chukwuma Igbokwe, and secretary, Theo Obasiani.

The workers paid tribute to the slain coal miners whom they said were murdered in cold blood for demanding better working conditions.

The statement said, “The day is marked to remember the sacrifices of our heroes past so that their efforts to improve the welfare and conditions of service of workers shall not be in vain.

“The council pays glowing tributes to these martyrs who paid the supreme price for demanding a living wage to ameliorate economic hardship under slave labour in the mines.

“The council calls on the trade unions to close ranks and to pursue the interests of workers with vim and vigour without compromise and to emulate the heroes of the struggle and defend Nigeria’s democracy with all their might as there is no alternative to democracy.”

The statement noted that workers are still subjected to poor conditions of service, several years after the Iva-Valley massacre.

The statement added, “The workers noted that the conditions that gave rise to the agitation of the coal miners have not abated as man’s inhumanity to man, injustice and exploitation are still in practice and slave wages have not been abolished and the coal industry has been abandoned.”