NLC reiterates resolve to go on strike over fuel price increases

The Nigerian Labor Congress (NLC) reiterated its threat to launch a nationwide strike over plans to further raise the price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), known as fuel.

NLC Chairman Ayuba Wabba said this in a statement signed jointly with NLC Acting Secretary-General Ismail Bello on Thursday in Abuja.

The statement was released following a virtual meeting of the NLC’s National Executive Council (NEC) on May 25.

Wabba said the in-session NEC also considered the Nigerian Governors Forum’s proposal for a three hundred per cent increase in the price of gasoline.

He said NEC resolved that the proposal was the height of provocation, arbitrariness, detachment and insensitivity to current economic realities in the country.

He said it also indicates a lack of sensitivity to the extreme hardships that Nigerians, especially workers, are going through.

He said NEC reiterated that it firmly stands by its decision taken at its meeting on February 17 to reject further increases in the price of refined petroleum products, in particular the PMS.

The NEC also reiterated its decision that the only sustainable way out of the fuel import crisis and associated disruptions in the downstream petroleum sub-sector is for the government to rehabilitate Nigeria‘s four state-owned refineries and build new ones.

The NEC ruled that any move to increase the price of refined petroleum products by even one cent, especially PMS, would result in an immediate withdrawal from services by Nigerian workers across the country without further notice.

“The NEC has resolved to formally write to the federal government to convey the plight of Nigerian workers, congressional concerns and NEC resolutions on the issue of new proposals for an increase in the price of fuel at the pump,” he said. -he says.

The NLC chairman also said that the NEC has decided to continue to keep its doors open for dialogue and amicable resolution of the industrial crisis caused by the massive layoff of workers by the Kaduna state government.

He added that NEC has resolved that in case the Kaduna State government continues to follow the path of war, threats and punitive actions against workers and their interests.

“The NEC has given the National Administrative Council (NAC) the power to reactivate the suspended industrial action in Kaduna State and also to call for the withdrawal of all workers in Nigeria from services without further notice,” he said. -he declares.

Wabba, however, noted that the NEC called on the National Assembly to keep labour administration, the national minimum wage, pensions and industrial relations on the Constitution’s exclusive legislative list.

He added that the NEC has led the full mobilization of workers in all zonal public hearings to give weight to the demands and aspirations of Nigerian workers in the ongoing revision of the 1999 Constitution. (NAN)