Organised labour yesterday resolved to continue with the three- day warning strike planned to start today nationwide,despite continued persuasion by the federal and state governments to call it off.
The strike is to protest refusal to implement the N18,000 minimum wage.
Chris Uyot, head, information department, Nigeria Labour Congress(NLC), in a statement issued last night said that “the three-day strike commences tomorrow (today).”
He said: “For the purpose of emphasis, any company in the private sector who dares Nigerian workers by opening for business during the strike would have its premises massively picketed and Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA) should be held responsible for this.
“As for the security agencies, we remind them that this strike is, as usual, a very peaceful, legal and legitimate option left for us in our collective struggle for the actualisation of the new Minimum Wage Act. If they chose to provoke Nigerian workers by attacking us, as advised by NECA, they will be doing more than enough damage to Nigeria’s already battered anti-democracy image.
“We call on unions in the private sector to see this reckless position by NECA as a challenge for us to intensify the mobilisation for a total strike in the sector. We implore all workers in the private sector to actively participate in this strike. The new minimum wage applies to all Nigerian workers in both private and public sectors.
“We are fully prepared to defend the rights of all workers who actively participate in this strike as we will never tolerate any infringement on the rights of workers to strike. We gave enough notice before we decided to embark on the strike.
“But for the clear dishonesty of NECA, every key player in industrial relations anywhere in the world should be convinced that 14 days notice is legal and enough for any serious employer or government to initiate resolutions of contentious issues in good faith. By their statement, it is now obvious that NECA who should have been involved in providing platforms for peaceful resolution of industrial crisis will be inciting the state against armless workers genuinely demanding for their legitimate rights.”
Meanwhile, the leadership of NLC has accused NECA of frustrating ongoing struggle for the implementation of new National Minimum Wage Act.
The Congress noted that the statement credited to Richard Uche, NECA President “did not only incite private sector employers against workers, but called on the Federal Government to mobilise its security and state apparatus of violence against armless striking workers in a bid to scuttle the strike.
“According to NECA, the strike is illegal and a gross abuse of trade union rights. It argues that it was unnecessary to shut down an entire economy on an issue that concern only about 2% of the workforce covered by the Minimum Wage Act.
“It is rather unfortunate that while NECA ostensibly in one breath is prevailing on the government to pay the National Minimum wage, in another breathe it claimed that action to actualise the payment of the wages was illegal.
“Given this strange double speak by a reputable organisation like NECA who should know better having been part of the process of negotiating the new wages and a key partner in industrial relations, we cannot but conclude that it is either the employers body is confused or desperate to protect its inability to implement the minimum wage in the private sector.
Labour leaders and Governors Forum representatives at the over six-hour closed door meeting held at Rivers State House, Abuja, declined comments on the outcome of the meeting.
Meanwhile, the National Union of Petroluem and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) yesterday directed tanker drivers to comply with the NLC’s strike. Similarly, workers in Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom and most states primed for the strike.
In Kaduna, fuel queues had returned to filling stations, while customers thronged banks in Ibadan.