NLC Reps Walk Out of Meeting With FG ,Stike commences

The  Nigeria Labour Congress on Tuesday walked out of the meeting held with the representatives of the Federal Government, vowing to go ahead with its scheduled nationwide strike on Wednesday.

epresentatives of the Trade Union Congress, who also attended the meeting, however, said the TUC would not join the strike.

NLC President, Aliyu Wabba (pictured above), led the labour delegation while the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. Babachir Lawal, led the Federal Government delegation at the talks held in the SGF’s office in Abuja on Tuesday night.

After the meeting, Lawal said, “The National Industrial Court has given an injunction that no strike by NLC and TUC should hold tomorrow (Wednesday). It is therefore clear that anyone embarking on strike tomorrow (Wednesday) is doing so illegally and government is assuring all Nigerians to come out and do their jobs tomorrow (Wednesday).

“It the duty of government to provide security for her citizens and anyone who tries to coerce any worker to do their bidding would be made to face the law of the land. We had full cooperation with the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria and they said they are not going on strike. For them, it is a complete return to work tomorrow (Wednesday). It is not the same with the NLC however. They have two factions, one agreed completely with the position of the TUC.”

Wabba said his team arrived at its decision to proceed on strike following the inability of the Federal Government to meet up with its demand to revert to the N86.50K old pump price of fuel.

Officials of NLC, who pleaded not to be named, said they were angered by the decision of the Federal Government to proceed to court, despite existing negotiation which was at the instance of the government.

The Joe Ajaero faction of the NLC had initially on Tuesday said it would not join the strike while the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers as well as the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Association of Nigeria had last week also dissociated the associations from the strike.

The action of the NLC followed the failure of the parties to resolve the dispute over the increase of the pump price of petroleum by the Federal Government from N86.50 to N145 per litre.

But the Federal Government has threatened to apply the ‘no-work-no-pay’ rule against workers who join the NLC strike.

The SGF, Babachir Lawal, in a statement on Tuesday, directed all ministers, permanent secretaries and heads of government agencies to invoke the provision of rule against errant workers.

Lawal advised civil servants to shun the exercise in their own interest, which, he said, was called by the NLC despite a ruling of the National Industrial Court, which restrained labour from going on strike on Wednesday.

[Punch]