The Nigeria Labour Congress on Wednesday said that it would soon embark on a long and total industrial action.
It, therefore, advised Nigerians to start stockpiling essential items like food and make bank transactions from Friday (tomorrow).
The congress had last week given the Federal Government a 14-day ultimatum to reverse the new price of fuel and the new Value Added Tax.
It also wants the sale of the Port Harcourt and Kaduna refineries by the Bureau of Public Enterprises to be cancelled.
The ultimatum ends on June 18.
Addressing a press conference in Abuja, the NLC President, Mr. Abdulwaheed Omar, said the union had met with various segments of the society to ensure the success of the strike.
All trade unions, according to him, had already been directed to begin mass mobilisation of their members.
Omar added that if the government failed to meet the deadline, the National Executive Council of the NLC would meet to announce a date for the commencement of the strike.
He directed all the state councils of the congress to also begin the mobilisation of workers, the informal sector and the populace, including students.
The NLC president said, �We have in the last 48 hours received messages of solidarity from many delegations from various segments of society, including market people, the self-employed, some faith-based organisations, the civil society coalition and workers.�
He regretted that the Presidency had not acknowledged a letter the union sent to it on the matter.
Omar added that the NLC was convinced that it would have a long-drawn battle with the government to correct some of the wrongs perpetrated by the immediate past administration.
He said, �Ordinarily, we should not have given a long ultimatum to the government to retrace its steps. But we thought that the government is new and would need to settle down.
�We had even prevailed on some of our people not to begin protests. But we might be wrong after all as the government has not deemed it fit to even acknowledge our letter.�
The union leader lamented that the increase in VAT from five to 10 per cent and price of fuel from N65 to N75 had led to a sharp rise in the cost of transportation, foodstuffs , manufactured goods and services.
He appealed to the National Assembly to intervene in the matter by asking the Presidency to reverse the increases and ensure the implementation of the 15 per cent wage increase by the immediate past administration.
Omar said, �The new National Assembly�s task is made easier by the fact that the bill on the increase in VAT had been rejected by its predecessor only for it (new VAT) to be imposed by former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
�Secondly, our laws say any increase in the prices of petroleum products must pass through the processes of the Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency. This was not done. In fact, no meeting of the PPPRA was convened to discuss price increase.�