Percy Onyeka
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) stated that labor unions never take pleasure in going on strikes and that all they want is for the government to act morally.
Remember that on Thursday, the National Labor Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) gave the federal government a 14-day ultimatum to comply with the 16-point labor accord that has been in place since October of last year.
This was said by Uchenna Ekwe, the NLC’s head of international relations, in a Friday interview on Channels Television.
Ekwe noted that they only issue an ultimatum when reminders to the government are not acted upon.
He said, “Usually people see when NLC starts putting a warning, and if you notice the comments, people will say we don’t want a strike, it will disrupt. Balancing all these, Let me make this clear, the NLC is actually never interested in a strike, we don’t want a strike; we want the right things to be done.
“Before you see us issue a public ultimatum, there must have been many communications that are not meant public to the government system calling their attention to probably an agreement like in this case.”
He said the agreement between Labour and the government was reached in October last year, and many communications serving as reminders to the government have been going on, which have yielded little impact.
He lamented that some items out of the 16-point agreement have not received any attention and that the unions want them addressed.
Ekwe also dismissed insinuations that Labour is playing to the gallery and trying to use its influence to quell agitations and protests in the country over hardship.
He said that Labour had no reason to play to the gallery, as it would be of no benefit to the workers and the Nigerian people.
He said the wage award, which is part of the agreement with the government, has only received partial implementation, and many states have not even implemented it at all.
Speaking on the agreed palliative to cushion the effect of petrol removal, which led to a rise in the cost of living, he noted that only Borno and Kebbi states did something significant in that regard, regretting that other states rather distributed cups of rice and others as palliative.
Despite the passage of time, “the majority of these crucial agreements remain unmet or negligibly addressed, indicating a blatant disregard for the principles of good faith, welfare, and rights of Nigerian workers and Nigerians,” organized labor expressed regret in a statement signed on Thursday by the leaders of the two labor unions, Festus Usifo and Joe Ajaero.
The Federal Government has been given 14 days, from today, February 9, to February 14, 2024, by organized labor, to fulfill its half of the agreement with the labor unions.
Techrectory with Agency Report
