Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has explained the reasons behind issuing the 14-day strike notice to the Federal Government, saying it is to compel government to do right things as agreed with the organized labour and not for the joy of going on a nation-wide strike
Edu-Biznews recalled that oth the NLC and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) had on Thursday issued a 14-day ultimatum to the government to fulfil the 16-point agreement with the workers since October last year.
Head of International Relations of the NLC, Uchenna Ekwe, who was reacting to some comments criticizing Labour for threatening government with such strike notice, stated this while featuring as a guest on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief on Friday, monitored by Edu-Biznews
He explained that the labour only issued an ultimatum when government failed to respond to series of reminders sent to it
“Usually people see when NLC starts putting warning and if you notice the comments, people will say we don’t want a strike, it will disrupt. Balancing all these, Let me make this clear, the NLC is actually never interested in a strike, we don’t want a strike; we want the right things to be done,” Ekwe said.
“Before you see us issue a public ultimatum, there must have been many communications that are not meant public to the government system calling their attention to probably an agreement like in this case," he explained
Ekwe stated that the agreement between Labour and the government was reached in October last year and many communications serving as a reminder to the government have been going on which has yielded little impact.
He lamented that some items out of the 16-point agreement have not received any attention and that the unions want it to be addressed.
The NLC Head of International Relations also dismissed insinuations that Labour is playing to the gallery and trying to use its influence to quell agitations and protests in the country over hardship. He said that Labour had no reason to play to the gallery as it would be of no benefit to the workers and the Nigerian people.
Ekwe said that the wage award which is part of the agreement with the government has only received partial implementation and many states have not even implemented it at all.
On the agreed palliative to cushion the effect of petrol subsidy removal which led to rise in cost of living, he noted that only Borno and Kebbi states did something significant in that regard, regretting that other states rather distributed cups of rice and others as palliative which he said was ridiculous.
In the statement signed by the leaders of the two labour unions, Joe Ajaero and Festus Usifo on Thursday, the organised labour expressed sadness that despite the passage of time, “the majority of these crucial agreements remain unmet or negligibly addressed, indicating a blatant disregard for the principles of good faith, welfare and rights of Nigerian workers and Nigerians”.
The organised labour said that it is giving the Federal Government 14 days starting from this Friday February 9 to February 14, 2024, to fulfil its part of the understanding with the labour unions.####
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