Strike continues as NASS, Labour meeting ends in deadlock

After four hours of deliberations with the leadership of the National Assembly led by Senate President Godswill Akpabio, Organised Labour has insisted on embarking on its planned nationwide strike.

The Labour, after the meeting on Sunday night, said it lacks the power to suspend the industrial action without recourse to laid down procedures.

The National Assembly had pleaded with Labour to suspend its planned strike and return to the negotiating table.

However, the President of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Comrade Festus Osifo, who spoke on behalf of labour comprising of TUC and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) on Sunday, said the outcome of the meeting would have to be related to organs of both labour centres before any decision could be reached.

Osifo said: “We’ve had a conversation; we’ve had a meeting and the issues were laid bare on the part of government. On the part of Organised Labour, we also laid what the issues are and there was an appeal from the Senate President for us to call off industrial action tonight but on our part.

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“We said that we have heard him but it is not possible for us to sit here and call off any industrial action because there are conditions, and precedents given to us by our NEC.”

He further expressed disappointment that the government was still dallying and not ready to sign off a living wage for Nigerian workers despite its pleas urging Labour not to cripple the economy.

The TUC President added: “We will take all their pleas to our organs and we will have another meeting taking what they have promised and the pleas they have made to our organs.

“For now, we don’t have the powers to call off the industrial action so the strike will continue while we will have conversations with our organs as soon as possible to lay bare what they have put forward and what they have proposed.”

Akpabio had noted that the National Assembly had to take the initiative to mediate over the matter, to ascertain why and what happened and how the negotiations could have broken down as it strongly believes that strike should be a last resort.

The Senate President said: “We decided to intervene because we are a people’s parliament. Again, the National Assembly believes strongly that more suffering to Nigerians must be avoided.

“We also know that it’s not just a question of strike in words. Most poor people will die those who are unable to access medical services will die, goods and services will not move freely, productivity will reduce drastically, and the living standards of Nigerians will also be inferred.

“Hence, in the last four hours, we have been making appeals and we are still appealing to the leadership of the NLC and the TUC to quickly return to the negotiating table with the government with the view to finding a lasting solution on this minimum wage issue.”

The Star