LABOUR PRESSES ON, TO DECIDE ON STRIKE

The leadership of the organised labour will meet with its organs today to discuss the N35,000 provisional wage award which the federal government approved yesterday for all treasury-paid federal workers for six months.

The president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero, stated this in an interview with State House reporters yesterday after a four-hour meeting with the government delegation led by the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila.

Ajero said the organised labour could not unilaterally shelve the indefinite strike it scheduled for October 3 without recourse to its organs.

“I don’t have much to say than what 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 (Gbajabiamila) said, we are 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,” Ajaero said.

The acting president of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Tommy Etim Okon, who also addressed journalists, said the labour would meet its organs today to review the outcomes of the meeting with the government delegation.

He added that the team from the organised labour would return for another meeting today.

The NLC and the TUC had called for an indefinite strike commencing on October 3 in protest against the alleged failure by the government to provide palliatives and implement policies to cushion the effect of the petrol subsidy removal on the masses.

Several workers’ unions across the country had declared their readiness to join the strike.

The unions include the Senior Staff Association of Universities, Teaching Hospitals, Research Institutes and Associated Institutes (SSAUTHRIA); the College of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU), the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), the National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives (NANNM), the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions, and the Medical & Health Workers Union of Nigeria.