Nigeria Labour Congress To Hold Emergency Meeting; Accuses FG Of Delaying Negotiations

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) will hold an emergency National Executive Council meeting today while accusing the federal government of delaying the negotiations, which began earlier this month.

The organized labor union announced the strike on Sept. 1 and gave a 21-day ultimatum to the government to address the union demands amid the removal of subsidies that caused an increase in fuel prices, among other issues.

However, considering the alleged slow response of the government, the union will be holding an emergency meeting to discuss the next steps with the National Executive Council (NEC).

NEC consists of all presidents, general secretaries, treasurers of all NLC's affiliate unions; state chairpersons and secretaries of the NLC state councils, chairperson of the NLC Youth Committee, and members of the National Administrative Council.

Regarding the government's slow response, a top NLC official said on Monday that the government had enough time to act upon the requests of the union, adding that it has been four months since the fuel subsidy was removed.

"It is only private sector employers who were telling the government to reach an agreement with us, and they were also kicking against the strike because they are apprehensive any labor action will affect them but it is going to affect everybody, not just the private sector," he said, Punch reported.

He continued, "The private sector employers have refused to give wage awards, saying that they want the Federal Government to lead the way. Therefore, they should have asked the Federal Government to lead the way."

He claimed that the private sector is happy that the federal government has not met NLC's demands as they don't have to pay the wage awards.

NLC President, Joe Ajaero, said on Monday that Nigerians should expect an "indefinite strike" with "total impact" soon.

"Within minutes the subsidy was removed, we resisted and said no, return it back to status quo so that we can discuss. They said to ask for palliatives, ask for a wage increase. Now that we have asked, they can't provide them and they have vacated the negotiation table," the president said, The Guardian reported.

The subsidy removal was announced by President Tinubu on May 29 and since then, Nigerians faced skyrocketed prices of fuel and food. Considering the negative impact of the subsidy removal, in some places youngsters looted government warehouses for food and non-food items.

The Tinubu-led administration announced in July that it has mobilized $500 million to transform the food system in Nigeria.