National Union of Food Beverage and Tobacco Employees (NUFBTE) and Michael Imoudu Labour Institutes (MINILS) have collaborated to boost employees’ knowledge of industrial and labour relations.
Speaking at the event, which held at the national secretariat of NUFBTE, the director-general of MINILS, Alhaji Saliu Ishaq, said that the institute has broadened its scope of activities to meet present challenges.
“We have introduced a diploma programme on industrial and labour relations, to enable us serve the workers well,” he said.
He added that both organisations were collaborating for mutual benefit, saying, “We are aware that the union has been a formidable one and we have been interacting and meeting over the years for mutual relationship.”
Ishaq also pointed out that the institution has worked with several food companies’ staff like Seven-Up, Nestle Nigeria and Unilever, among others.
According to him, MINILS seeks “to introduce to the union our bouquet of services, it is an institute that is forward-looking with the new management coming on board in April this year.
“Since we came on board, we have been strategising on how we can move the institute forward along with our stakeholders.”
He pointed out that the institute was impressed by the developments in the union as it ventured into various businesses, with the aim of making the union viable and financially buoyant, since trade unions should be self-sustaining.
“Our services for next year 2018, we are looking forward to receiving members from your member companies to take maximum advantage of our services,” he told the NUFBTE delegation.
For the new course, Diploma in Industrial and Labour Relations, Ishaq said, “We have graduated two sets of students and have been able to attract an agitation from the regulatory body, National Board for Technical Education, Kaduna, to give the institute final accreditation.
“From this we will move to post-graduate diploma that member unions can take advantage of.
“Currently, we are discussing with the University of Ilorin to collaborate with them on the course, to introduce it as degree programme.”
Also, the national president of NUFBTE, Lateef Oyelekan, stated that the institution has improved a lot of workers in the country through training.
He explained that the first time he visited the Labour Solidarity Centre in America was through the institution.
He also pointed out that the union had diversified into other areas to generate revenue, “We came up with event centre and from there we moved to commercial hotel and after the commissioning of the hotel, we started our water factory.
“We have learnt a lot from the institution, but the institution needs to be widely spread across the country.”
He noted that the institute location in Ilorin may be too far for some workers; so, he called on the management to open branches in all the states of the federation, or in the interim, the institution could start with zonal centres, to get closer to workers who would need the services of MINILS.
Oyelekan also offered that the institute could make use of the union’s hotel facility in Lagos for its training programmes in the state.