THE Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has resolved to immediately embark on a nationwide strike without any notice if the federal government takes “any decision to increase by even one cent the price of refined petroleum products especially PMS.”
The NLC made the resolution public in a communiqué after a virtual meeting of its National Executive Council held on Tuesday, May 25, 2021 anchored from its Paschal Bafyau Labour House national headquarters, Abuja.
The communiqué, signed by Comrade Ayuba Wabba, NLC President, and Comrade Ismail Bello, Acting General Secretary, the NEC also resolved to officially write and convey its concerns to the federal government stressing the plight of Nigerian workers and the resolutions of the NEC on the matter of fresh proposals for an increase in the pump price of fuel especially as informed by the stance of the Nigeria Governors Forum.
While reiterating that it still stands solidly by the decision taken at its NEC meeting of 17th February 2021 rejecting further increase in the price of refined petroleum products particularly the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), NLC also re-echoed its position that “the only sustainable way out of the crisis of fuel importation and associated dislocations in the downstream petroleum sub sector is for government to rehabilitate all four public refineries in Nigeria and build new ones.”
On the ongoing attempt to amend the Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution, NLC called on the National Assembly to retain Labour administration, national minimum wage, pension and industrial relations in the exclusive legislative list.
The NLC therefore directed its state councils to fully mobilise workers to all the Zonal Public Hearings to lend weight to the demands and aspirations of Nigerian workers in the ongoing review of the 1999 Constitution.
On the industrial crisis in Kaduna State which led to the declaration of a five-day warning strike and street protests in the state, the NLC “resolved to continue to keep its doors open for dialogue and amicable resolution of the industrial crisis occasioned by the insensitive and illegal mass sack of workers by the Kaduna State Government.”
It equally resolved that should “the Kaduna State Government remained adamant and recalcitrant or continues to pursue the path of war, threat and punitive actions against workers and their interests, that it had given the National Administrative Council (NAC) the power to re-activate the suspended industrial action in Kaduna State and also call for the withdrawal of services of all workers in Nigeria without any further notice.”
