The Trade Union Congress (TUC), the umbrella group for senior civil officials, will not support the strike call made by the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC).
According to Anaedoonline.ng, the NLC is apparently organising a two-day warning strike for tomorrow and Wednesday to protest the federal government’s holdup in putting policies in place to ease the hardship brought on by the elimination of gasoline subsidies.
The decision was made at the NEC meeting, according to NLC President Joe Ajaero, who had previously stated that a “total shutdown” could occur after 14 days.
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According to the NLC, the decision was made as a result of the federal government’s “failure to dialogue with organised labour stakeholders and engage them in efforts to mitigate the effects of the removal of the petrol subsidy on the poor masses.”
Recall that on August 3, the NLC and the TUC protested the removal of subsidies together in Abuja and state capitals.
However, the TUC voted to continue talking to the government to lessen the impact of the elimination of the petrol subsidy at its National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting on Sunday.
The proposed strike, according to the TUC source, a NEC member, is “premature,” he or she continued, adding that joining the NLC in the strike would further jeopardise the interests of the general public.
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“The TUC feels there is no need to embark on a strike because we are still discussing with the Federal Government on the issue of palliatives for workers,” he said.
The TUC top member chastised the NLC leadership for stalling negotiations between Organised Labour and a team from the Federal Government headed by Femi Gbajabiamila, the President’s Chief of Staff.
The source said: “The TUC is not joining the NLC on that planned warning strike. The reason is because we are reaching out to the Federal Government. The government has already released palliatives to the states, and we are also expecting the government to release the one for federal workers.
“When we met with the Senate, the statement by the NLC that they don’t have confidence in the Chief of Staff to the President-led committee led to the suspension of that committee because the man (Femi Gbajabiamila) felt if the NLC doesn’t have confidence in him why should he be leading the committee when the outcome will not be palatable? That stalled the work of the committee.
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“Now, there is a Minister of Labour and Employment (Simon Lalong), who is supposed to be the leader of the government team. There is an ongoing effort to interact with us to get results.
”We feel that it is not the right time to go on strike. When you go on strike, we will be putting the masses at the receiving end because the government has a way of navigating out of such matters.
”Again, the issue of strike should not be one-sided. It should be a joint effort by the two labour centres to agree before issuing a strike notice. One centre cannot claim superiority over the other centre. It is not done anywhere.
“You cannot announce a strike and then decide to bring us in. It is supposed to be a decision taken by the two centres.
”The NLC is free to go on strike on its own. We are different unions.”
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