FG and Labour establish a truce, postponing the strike for a month
Organised Following a deal with the Federal Government, Labour last night postponed its planned one-month nationwide strike. NAN learned that the deal was struck extremely late at night, despite the fact that the terms of the Memorandum of Understanding suspending the strike were hazy at the time of this article.
In order to find common ground and prevent the planned strike by organized labor to press the government to address the agony and sorrow of Nigerians brought on by the termination of the petrol subsidy, the conference was reconvened yesterday.
The National Executive Councils, or NECs, of the TUC and the NLC met separately earlier yesterday to discuss the offers made by the Federal Government on Sunday.
Vanguard learned that the NLC and TUC leaders established a committee to harmonize their resolutions in order to find common ground following the separate NEC meeting.
The government team received the joint resolution from the NLC and TUC around 5:00 p.m., according to the sources.
To the dismay of the union leaders who Vanguard gathered, the meeting did not resume until 8.15 p.m., when the government team came back. Remember that President Bola Tinubu gave in to the labor movement’s demand for a provisional pay award of N35,000 on Sunday evening after his initial offer of N25,000 for the typical low-grade worker to work for six months was turned down.
Instead, labor asked that the wage award be uniform across the board and last until the implementation of a new minimum wage that is anticipated to be negotiated next year.
One of the decisions made during the Sunday meeting, according to a statement from Mohammed Idris, Minister of Information and National Orientation, was that “the topics in disagreement can only be handled when workers are at work and not when they are on strike.
“Labor unions lobbied for increased wage awards, and the Federal Government Team committed to bringing President Bola Tinubu’s consideration of Labour’s request.
“A sub-committee to be constituted to work out the details of the implementation of all items for consideration regarding government interventions to cushion the effect of fuel subsidy removal.
“The issue involving the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) and the Road Transport Employees Association of Nigeria (RTEAN) in Lagos State needs to be resolved immediately, and Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the governor of Lagos State, who took part virtually, promised to do so.
The statement read, “NLC and TUC will consider the offers by the Federal Government with a view to postponing the planned strike to allow for further consultations on implementing the resolutions above.”
The NLC President, Joe Ajaero, his TUC counterpart, Festus Osifo, the NLC General Secretary, Emma Ugbaja, and the TUC Secretary General, Nuhu Toro are among the members of the organized labor delegation in attendance.
The Minister of State for Labour, Nkeiruka Onyejecha, the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, and the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, make up the government team.
JAF Aplaud NLC, TUC’s doggedness
The Joint Action Front, the umbrella organization for pro-labor civil society organizations, praised the NLC and TUC for their perseverance in a statement issued by its chairperson and secretary, respectively, Dr. Dipo Fashina and Abiodun Aremu.
“We pledge the unwavering solidarity of the Joint Action Front (JAF) for the struggles of the labor movement against the anti-poor and neo-liberal attacks of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration, particularly the withdrawal of fuel subsidies, increase in fuel prices, devaluation of the naira, increase in school fees, and other attacks on living standards,” the statement reads.
“We assure the NLC and TUC that all workers and oppressed Nigerians are prepared to participate in the general strike to demand a reversal of the administration’s policies that have made life difficult for the working class and the poor, including the removal of fuel subsidies, an increase in fuel prices, a freeze on tuition at public universities, and a hike in school fees.
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