Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has given the federal government September 28 deadline to reverse the recent increases in the price of petrol and electricity tariffs or face nationwide industrial action.
This was part of the decisions reached at yesterday’s Central Working Committee (CWC) meeting held in Abuja.
The federal government had approved an increase in the price of petrol and granted the electricity distribution companies the approval to raise electricity tariffs.
At the CWC meeting, NLC vowed to shut down activities in the country if at the end of the September 28 deadline, the federal government fails to utilise the opportunity to address its demands and reverse the price increase.
It resolved to convene its National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting on September 22 to ratify the decision of the CWC on the 14-day strike ultimatum.
The Trade Union Congress (TUC) had on Monday earlier issued a seven-day strike ultimatum, urging the federal government to reverse the increases, describing the government’s action as unwarranted and insensitive.
Addressing journalists yesterday at the end of the CWC meeting in Abuja, NLC President, Mr. Ayuba Wabba, said: “We met to discuss the twin-challenge of the increases in the electricity tariffs and pump price of petroleum products and clearly speaking, we have looked at particularly workers that earn wages.
“So, it was decided that we issue the statutory two weeks’ notice to the federal government to reverse those decisions and in our own case, the NEC also has to sanction it if you want to undertake such actions.
Wabba said the meeting looked at how the price increases have eroded the purchasing power of workers, and importantly, how it has eroded the gains of the N30,000 minimum wage, which many workers have not even earned.
Many people are at pains now,” he said, explaining: “The impact of the electricity tariffs is the fact that those in category ‘A,’ which they have increased their tariffs are the manufacturers, which will transfer the cost on goods and services. That is why the cost of goods and services are also going up.”
Wabba also said that the CWC meeting discussed the outcome of meeting with the government held on Tuesday to find out if there was anything on the table.
Wabba had while stating the position of NLC at the dialogue session with federal government team on Tuesday condemned the recent hike in the cost of fuel and electricity tariffs by the government, saying that it has further aggravated the economic hardship facing Nigerians.
The NLC president said Nigerian workers who have lost their jobs and means of livelihoods due to COVID-19- imposed challenges are being forced to make further sacrifices through an unbearable increase in prices of fuel and electricity tariffs.
Wabba insisted that the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) should ensure that power sector firms, especially the distribution companies (Discos) improve on their efficiency.
“Those issues that constitute the price is part of the inefficiency in the system which government hitherto has been paying and christened subsidy. “Government cannot transfer the inefficiency to the people. Nigeria should refine its products.”
He added: “At this point, what do you have on the table to cushion the effects on workers, their families because they have been pushed to the wall and already at the edge. Do you have anything for us? “So, that we can now say that despite these challenges, this is what I have for Nigerian workers that they can be able to have something that can cushion this effect for them.
“Already the value of minimum wage had been eroded. The purchasing power parity, when you compare with all West African countries, we are already on the ground. That is the reality. In Ghana, compare their minimum wage with our own; in all West Africa countries, including Niger Republic that has just started refining recently, they are now serving us with products. That is not how we ought to be.”