Total shutdown as NLC and TUC ignores emergency meeting with FG

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), which make up organized labor, have opted out of an emergency meeting with the federal government scheduled for 3 p.m. at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

Simon Lalong, the federal government’s minister of labor and employment, convened an urgent meeting with representatives of organized labor on Friday evening in the conference room of the White House Chief of Staff’s office.

It was discovered that the purpose of Friday’s gathering was to convince the labor movement not to go ahead with its scheduled nationwide strike beginning on Tuesday, October 3, 2023.

Recall that on September 26 the NLC and the TUC announced plans to begin an indefinite strike on October 3 due to the hardship caused by the removal of fuel subsidies by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s government.

The organized labor and affiliated organizations began mobilizing members in support of the planned strike on Friday.

The National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers, the Association of Nigerian Aviation Professionals, and the Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria have all indicated that they intend to participate in the strike.

The National Union of Banks, Insurance, and Financial Institutions Employees also declared its participation in the strike.

The National Union of Electricity Employees and the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers both declared they would participate in the Thursday-announced indefinite strike.

The implication is that if the planned strike occurs, the nation’s economy will collapse.

The development occurs as Nigeria battles a depreciating naira on the foreign exchange market, a parallel market exchange rate of N985 to $1, and August’s skyrocketing inflation rate of 25%.