The Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions (ASSBIFI) has threatened to ground the operations of 11 financial institutions that have denied their workers the right to join labour union.

ASSBIFI's president, Comrade Sunday Salako, said failure of the financial institutions to allow their workers to join union would be greeted with mass action and disruption of business activities.

 He said the affected institutions include; Diamond Bank plc, Guaranty Trust Bank plc, Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc, Fidelity Bank plc and Standard Chartered Bank Plc.

Others are Leadway Assurance, Industrial and General Insurance, Standard Alliance Insurance, Goldlink Assurance, Capital Alliance Insurance and Continental Reinsurance 
 Speaking  at the union's 8th triennial national delegates conference in Ilorin, Kwara  State at the weekend, Salako said the action was necessary as ASSIBIFI could no longer tolerate a situation where the institutions continually kept their workers from unionising thereby denying them their rights.

He also charged customers to withdraw their patronage from institutions that refuse their workers to unionize.

Comrade Salako expressed concern about the rate of poverty in the country and implored the three tiers of government to reduce poverty by 25%  by 2016.

 He said Nigeria has all it takes to be one of the leading economies in the world.