If the price of petrol continues to rise, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has threatened that its members will go on a statewide strike action without giving the Federal Government any official notice.
Comrade Joe Ajaero, president of the NLC, made this statement today, August 14, during the ongoing conference of the African Alliance of Trade Unions in Abuja.
Ajaero urged the Federal government to change “those bad economic policies that make our wages next to nothing” in response to the Registrar of Trade Unions’ advice on how labour should conduct themselves in carrying out their duties to protect the interests of workers and, by extension, Nigerians.
We are now here. The price of petroleum products at the pump may be raised.
But for a while now, the Labour Minister has only gone to the Justice Minister to request an injunction to restrain Labour from responding.
They have begun tossing about the concept that the cost of petroleum goods will probably rise.
Let me add this, though. If the effects of the last two gasoline price rises are not addressed and we wake up to see that they have changed the fuel pump price again, Nigerian workers will not give any strike notice.
He continued, “I want to beg with the administration that such poor economic policies should be checked since they are making our wages almost nothing.
We shall feel at ease no matter where we are if you stop implementing the policies that cause inflation and currency devaluation.
We will request that you maintain the minimum wage at 30,000 if the dollar and the naira are currently equal.
We will request that you leave the situation as it is if inflation is checked to zero. However, inflation is out of control, and the National Bureau of Statistics acknowledges that over 133 million Nigerians are multidimensionally poor.
I believe that the government should focus on these problems.
