The Nigeria Labour Congress President, Comrade Joe Ajaero, on Friday called for a tax on the profits of technology giants and automated industries to fund comprehensive retraining and upskilling programmes for workers facing displacement in the era of artificial intelligence.

Speaking at the 2025 Conference of the Labour Writers Association of Nigeria in Ibadan, Ajaero warned that while AI is often presented as a marker of efficiency and progress, it is being deployed by corporations to deepen worker exploitation, erode rights, and increase inequality.

The conference, held at the Golden Tulip in Ibadan, focused on ‘The Future of Work in the Era of Artificial Intelligence’.

“We must bargain for comprehensive retraining and upskilling programmes, funded by a tax on the excessive profits of the tech giants and automated industries,” Ajaero remarked.

He added, “Our struggle is to socialise the benefits of AI and robotise the burdens, ensuring it leads to a society with more leisure, greater security, and shared prosperity for the working class.”

The NLC president described the rise of AI as “the modern face of the class struggle”, noting that workers risk being pushed into greater precarity as companies prioritise profit.

“They sell us a narrative of efficiency and progress, but we must see it for what it truly is: a tool for maximising profit by de-skilling jobs, casualising labour, and ultimately, weakening the collective power of the working people,” the labour leader stated.

He cautioned that without safeguards, AI would reshape labour relations in ways that weaken collective bargaining, undermine unionisation and create a digitally dispossessed underclass.”

Ajaero urged unions and policymakers to press for protective legislation.

“We must fight for robust legal frameworks that guarantee the ‘Right to Disconnect’, strictly limit algorithmic surveillance, and ensure that productivity gains from AI are shared through shorter workweeks with no loss of pay,” he said.

Turning to labour writers, Ajaero reminded them of their duty to highlight the challenges facing workers, insisting that journalists were integral to the trade union movement.

“Your typewriters, recorders, and keyboards are no less important than our placards and negotiation tables. They are the instruments with which we shape the narrative, counter the propaganda of the bourgeoisie, and awaken the consciousness of the masses,” he told delegates.

Citing recent disputes at the Dangote Refinery and Petrochemical complex, he accused the company of violating Nigeria’s Labour Act, the Constitution, and international conventions by attempting to stop workers from joining unions.

“The recent violations of the rights of workers to join unions and the reckless attempts at de-unionisation of workers, all in the Dangote Refinery and Petrochemical, bear testimony to the unrelenting and pervasive power of corrosive capitalism,” Ajaero said.

He criticised the use of the media to spread disinformation, claiming attempts were made to blame workers instead of addressing breaches of the law.

Ajaero stressed that unity remained the most powerful weapon against corporate and technological exploitation.

“There is no room for neutrality in the face of this attempt to subjugate us to the forces of oppression. To stand on the sidelines is to side with the oppressor,” he said. “They have their AI, but we have our WE. Our collective power, our solidarity, is the ultimate intelligence no machine can replicate or break.”