By our reporter| Organised labour on Monday explained it would not declare nationwide strike and street protests over the recent icrease in the pump price of petrol by the federal government.
At a joint press briefing at Labour House in Abuja by leaders of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), they stated the organisation is not a “one-man show”, adding that “strike is the last option”.
They, therefore, pledged to exhaust all available options to ensure ongoing issues were resolved before the option of strike would be considered.
Fielding questions from newsmen, Deputy President of NLC, Comrade Joe Ajaero, noted that labour could not on its own declare nationwide strike without engaging all its members and following due process.
He said, “The issue of whether we are going on strike immediately or not, I don’t think we operate that way in the labour movement. Our strike was suspended based on certain understandings and our understanding was still violated. That was why we raised that alarm yesterday (Sunday) which led to the walkout.
“We can’t come in here to announce a strike or the next strategies as if it was just a one-man organisation.
“Part of what we are doing in terms of engagement is to reach out and if every other means fail, strike is usually the last option by any union. We don’t just, at any slightest provocation start declaring strike. I think that is not what is on the table now but there are certain disagreements which we are trying to address.”
“On whether Nigerians have lost faith on us, we didn’t buy it with money and we won’t equally buy back their confidence with money.
“Even the last agreement, there seems to be government’s interpretation of it; either the two parties, one of them seems not to understand the contents of the letters during the last agreement.”
Comrade Nasir Idris, another Deputy President of the NLC, had earlier described the recent government’s move as “pain-inducing and life-crippling increase in pump price.”
According to him, based on the last time the union signed the Memorandum of Understanding, government had no license to fix price of fuel, noting that government’s conduct was in gross violation of fundamental terms of its agreement and in bad faith calculated to frustrate the process of an amiable resolution.
Idris said, “Indeed, the letter and spirit of the terms and conditions of the agreement presuppose that contemplation of an increase or an increase would constitute a breach of the dialogue process. What we reasonably expected was that the government would channel its creative energies to deepening stimulus to the appropriate sectors of the economy to kick start growth.”
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