The two labour unions in Nigeria, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), have finally joined ranks in their bid to embark on an indefinite strike which they say will be the “Mother of all strikes” that will shut down every sector of the Nigerian economy.
Despite pleas and calls by the Nigerian government for the organised labour to shelve the planned industrial action scheduled for Tuesday, October 3, the unions say nothing will stop the strike as Nigerian workers are disenchanted with the government’s refusal to fulfill its promises of providing palliatives to cushion the effects of the removal of subsidy on petroleum products by President Bola Tinubu.
The National Deputy President of the TUC, Tommy Etim, who addressed a press conference in Abuja on Wednesday, insisted that the unions had given the government sufficient time to address their demands, stressing that the workers would not allow themselves to be deceived any longer.
Etim added that any fresh meeting with the FG at this time was pointless and asked Nigerians to brace for the long-drawn strike.
‘’The government had been given more than enough time to meet our demands but they did nothing. The strike has been fixed, nothing will stop it and if they (FG) like, they can go to court as usual. The only thing that can stop the strike is if they meet all our demands,’’ Etim stated.
‘’The strike will not just be a total shutdown of the nation, it is going to be the ‘mother of all strikes’. Do you know that they are even planning to sack 17,000 workers in this period when Nigerians are suffering great hardships?
“The issues are straightforward, NLC’s joint communiqué was very clear. NLC has declared an indefinite nationwide strike which is to begin on October 3, 2023, and nothing will make us not to start unless the government does everything we have said they should do.
‘’No meeting or promise that would make us stop; the only thing that would make us stop is the fulfilment of all those demands, nothing else”, he said.
Findings have also revealed that important affiliates of the unions like the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers and the National Union of Electricity Employees have indicated that they would join the indefinite strike declared by the NLC and TUC which could further compound the plight of Nigerians with the attendant fuel scarcity and nationwide blackout that would follow.
Health workers have also said that they would not be available to attend to patients at the hospitals while judiciary staff disclosed that the courts would be shut down nationwide.