LEADERS of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) are currently heading for the Presidential Villa in Abuja for a meeting that would determine whether the strike called over the nationwide hardship would hold or not.
The unions had declared indefinite strike with effect from October 3, 2023 over the nationwide hardship as a result of some government policies, particularly fuel subsidy.
After shunning initial meeting by the Federal Government, the unions leaders held a meeting at Aso Rock on Sunday evening.
Governors, Ministers and other officials attended the meeting chaired by Femi Gbajabiamila, Chief of Staff to President Bola Tinubu.
At the end of that meeting, Gbajabiamila expressed optimism that the strike would be called off.
“I am happy to say that after four hours, we have reached certain agreements that are for the benefit of the Nigerian worker. Agreements on wage bills, agreements on committees on salary increments, CNG buses, on several other things, I believe, both TUC Labour and government side.
“Hopefully, we expect that labour will call a meeting of their various branches and executive tomorrow to present the agreements that have been reached, and we pray and we believe and we hope that the strike will be called off on Tuesday,” he had said.
But Ajaero said the organised labour could not unilaterally shelve the indefinite strike it scheduled for October 3 without recourse to its organs.
“I don’t have much to say than what the Chief of Staff has said. We’ve been meeting and we’ve looked at almost all the issues, all the promissory notes from the government and we’ll look at how to translate them to reality and to be workable.”
“Then, we’re going to take those promises to our organs. Of course, you know these people here cannot just wake up and review and call off action. So, like he (Gbajabiamila) said, we are hopeful that our organs will have a look at them and give us a fresh mandate on what next to do. So, it’s a simple one,” he had said.
The Acting President of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Tommy Etim Okon, who also addressed journalists, said the labour would meet its organs today to review the outcomes of the meeting with the government delegation.
He added that the team from the organised labour would return to another meeting.
He said, “Let me, on behalf of the TUC, also point out to the fact that we have had series of conversations surrounding the issue raised and we do hope that by tomorrow (today), we are going to get across to our organs so that we can also look at it and cross-fertilize ideas and see the way forward. I am sure we are coming back again tomorrow (today) for that.”
This newspaper reports that the union leaders met at Labour House, Abuja, on Monday afternoon and proceeded to Aso Rock after the meeting.