The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), announced that it would proceed with its two-day warning strike, which will start tomorrow.
The NLC claimed that it was unaware of any meetings with the Federal Government today, but Mohammed Idris Magaji, the minister of information and orientation, claimed that the Federal Government and Labour were in discussion regarding the planned strike.
A senior NLC official told reporters that the government had not sent any invitations for meetings and that state councils and labour unions were responsible for the industrial action.
However, Simon Lalong, the minister of labour and employment, met with the NLC leadership on Saturday, according to Mohammed Idris Magaji, the minister of information and orientation, who also said, “We are very hopeful that the strike may be averted.”
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The minister declared that the administration will keep pleading with Organised Labour to come to see reason and recognise the government’s attempts to provide palliatives via State Governors and the Conditional Cash Transfer programme.
He claimed that as State Governments are more directly affected by the elimination of subsidies, the government’s policy was to transmit the palliatives through them, regardless of their political affiliations.
The minister said the government will continue to work with labour to avert the planned strike while making a plea to Organised Labour to cooperate with the government to guarantee that all measures taken to reposition the economy and turn things around for the better yield the desired outcomes.
The Federal Government’s ‘deliberate’ refusal to uphold understandings reached with Organised Labour at the outset of subsidy removal, as well as pressure from unions and state chapters over the excruciating sufferings their members are facing as a result of the removal of fuel subsidy, the NLC claimed, informed its decision to go on the two-day warning strike as a precursor to indefinite industrial action.
