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arrests, detentions and sometimes long prison sentences for those who had participated in
the protests. Nine workers were arrested and imprisoned or subjected to administrative
detention and “re-education through labour”. The supervisory bodies have indicated that
the inviolability of trade union premises is a civil liberty which is essential to the exercise
of trade union rights and that the occupation of trade union premises by the security forces,
without a court warrant authorizing such occupation, is a serious interference by the
authorities in trade union activities. 12
4.1.2. The right to organize
96. The supervisory bodies consider that the freedom to establish organizations is foremost
among trade union rights; it is the prerequisite without which the other guarantees in
Conventions Nos 87 and 98 would remain a dead letter. Freedom of association implies the
right of workers and employers to elect their representatives in full freedom and to
organize their administration and activities without any interference by the public
authorities. The fundamental idea of Article 3 of Convention No. 87 is that workers and
employers may decide for themselves the rules which should govern the administration of
their organizations and the elections which are held therein. 13
97. A frequent question concerns the government’s control of and restrictions on the use of
trade union funds. The CFA has stated that provisions which give the authorities the right
to restrict the freedom of a trade union to administer and utilize its funds as it wishes for
normal and lawful trade union purposes are incompatible with the principles of freedom of
association. 14 When examining allegations of the sealing off of the headquarters of the
National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and the Petroleum and
Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), surrounding them with
police, freezing union bank accounts and suspending check-off facilities, the CFA stated
that measures of administrative control over the management, such as financial audits and
investigations, should be applied only in exceptional cases, when justified by grave
circumstances (for instance, presumed irregularities in the annual statement or
irregularities reported by members of the organization), in order to avoid any
discrimination between one trade union and another and to preclude the danger of
excessive intervention by the authorities which might hamper a union’s exercise of the
right to avoid harmful and unjustified publicity or the disclosure of information which
might be confidential. 15
4.1.3. The right to strike
98. The supervisory bodies have maintained over the years that the right to strike is one of the
essential means through which workers and their organizations may promote and defend
their economic and social interests. These interests not only concern better working
conditions or collective claims of an occupational nature, but also the seeking of solutions
12 2006 Digest, paras 178 and 179.
13 ibid., paras 454 and 455.
14 ibid., para. 485.
15 ILO: Report of the Committee on Freedom of Association; No. 295, Case No. 1793, para. 611.
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