The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, will today begin a two-day warning strike after shunning a meeting with the Federal Government over increasing hardship and suffering across the country caused by the removal of fuel subsidy.
This came as the Minister of Labour and Employment, Simon Lalong, yesterday warned that the strike will worsen the plights of ordinary Nigerians and urged NLC to shelve the action.
The NLC had on Friday, given notice of a two-day warning strike to protest the excruciating mass suffering and impoverishment experienced around the country, threatening a total and indefinite shutdown of the economy within 14 working days or 21 days after the warning strike, if government did not take steps to address the hardship experienced across the country.
While briefing on Friday after its NEC’s meeting, NLC President, Joe Ajaero, said: “NEC in session of NLC resolved to embark on a total and indefinite shutdown of the nation within 14 working days or 21 days from today until steps are taken by the government to address the excruciating mass suffering and the impoverishment experienced around the country.”
Though sources in the NLC leadership told Vanguard that the strike will go ahead, despite yesterday’s scheduled meeting with the Minister of Labour and Employment, Simon Lalong, it was gathered that a media briefing by the minister allegedly castigating labour leaders, ahead of the meeting, forced NLC leaders to shun the meeting that would have been held at the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, Federal Secretariat.
The minister was said to have threatened the NLC leaders at his briefing, foreclosing any chance that NLC would honour the meeting.
One of the visibly angry NLC leaders told newsmen that the minister’s alleged outburst a few hours before the scheduled meeting put the final nail to NLC’s resolve to proceed with the strike as resolved by members of its National Executive Council, NEC, last Friday.
His words:
“We were scheduled to meet the Minister of Labour and Employment later today (yesterday), precisely by 3 pm but a few hours to the meeting, the minister called a media briefing where he castigated us and threatened us among other uncomplimentary words.
“Not that the meeting would have stopped the strike, but we intended to attend the meeting in the spirit of social dialogue. But as you are aware, the Minister of Labour, before the scheduled meeting, held a media briefing castigating and threatening us.
‘’You do not expect us to attend a meeting when we had been warned of a possible arrest.
In fact, we thank the minister for putting us on notice of their plan. So, the right thing to do is to keep away from such meetings and avoid any possible arrest.
Expectedly, the Federal Government said it waited for the NLC to attend a negotiation meeting at the Ministry of Labour and Employment headquarters, but the Congress refused to attend.
Labour and Employment Minister, Lalong disclosed this at the meeting attended by the delegation of the Trade Union Congress, TUC of Nigeria.
The minister also said that the ministry was yet to receive any formal communication from the NLC on the proposed two-day warning strike.
He said the strike notice came when he was receiving briefing from the various departments in the ministry, adding that he had to suspend the briefings to convene the meeting with the NLC because of the urgency of the issue at hand.