Why NLC Chickened Out From Much Talked About Nationwide Strike

Why NLC Chickened Out From Much Talked About Nationwide Strike

The Leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress NLC and the Trade Union Congress TUC, have suspended its proposed nationwide strike which was slated for November 6th.

The labour unions had planned to embark on an indefinite strike on Tuesday to press home their demands for an upward review of the minimum wage from N18, 000 to N30, 000.

Rising from a meeting of the tripartite committee set up by the federal government, NLC president, Ayuba Wabba, told reporters that the decision to suspend the industrial action was taken after agreements were reached and documents signed.

“Having reached this position and agreements signed, the proposed strike action is hereby suspended,” he said.

Efforts to resolve the disagreement between government and labour initially suffered a setback on Monday as both parties failed to reach consensus on the minimum wage.

After meeting for over seven hours, the two teams arrived at different figures. While labour insisted on N30,000, the government delegation proposed N24,000.

Chris Ngige, minister of labour, had said the two figures would be forwarded to President Muhammadu Buhari for approval.

The meeting continued at 10pm and after two hours of deliberation, both sides agreed on an amount.

Wabba, who did not disclose the figure of the new minimum wage arrived at by the committee, said only the amount would be presented to Buhari.

He said the amount would only be made public after the committee’s report would have been presented to the president by 4.15pm on Tuesday.

Why NLC Chickened Out From Much Talked About Nationwide Strike