Joe Ajaero, NLC President
The proposed strike action of the organized labour to call attention of Federal Government to the harsh economic realities faced by workers in the country, scheduled to commence tomorrow, Tuesday may be averted afterall, THE STATEPOST has learnt.
According to our source, the strike action is likely to be halted by the organizer, labour following their yesterday meeting with government which yielded several benefits to workers.
A source close to the labour leaders informed THE STATEPOST that the meeting of the Federal Government with the aggrieved labour was reckoned to be very favorable that the organized labour leaders in the country had no alternative than to promise to go back home to consult with organs and workers first on the next line of action to be taken on the impending strike action.
It would be recalled that in a bit to avert the strike action threatened by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), the Federal Government held a meeting with the labour leaders in Abuja on Sunday.
According to a statement by the Minister of Information, Mohammed Idris after the meeting, some concessions were made by the government including the N35,000 provisional wage increment for all treasury-paid federal government workers for six months.
Commitment to fast-tracking the provision of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) buses to ease public transportation difficulties associated with the removal of PMS subsidy.
Removal of VAT on diesel for the next six months, and commencement of payment of N75,000 to 15 million households at N25,000 per month, for a three-month period from October-December 2023.
The organized labour leaders may have also decided to tow the line of peace as government insisted that workers needed to be at work for these concessions to be implemented.
In his own reaction to government position at yesterday’s meeting, NLC President, Joe Ajaero said they are taking the government promises to the workers for consideration before a final decision would be announced on going ahead with the proposed strike or otherwise.
He said: “I don’t have much to say than the Chief of Staff has said. We’ve been meeting and we’ve looked at almost all the issues, all the promissory notes from the government and we’ll look at how to translate them to reality and to be workable. Then we’re going to take those promises to our organs, of course you know these people here cannot just wake up and review and call off action.
“So like he said, we’re hopeful that our organs will have a look at them and give us a fresh mandate on what next to do. So it’s a simple one.”
The labour delegation at the meeting included the NLC President, Joe Ajaero, Deputy President, TUC, Dr Tommy Etim Okon, NLC General Secretary, Emma Ugboaja, TUC General Secretary, Nuhu Toro, among others.
