The Nigeria Labour Congress(NLC), has said, that its planned mass protest scheduled for Tuesday,January 8, 2019, over the delay in transmitting the recommendations of the Tripartite Committee on a new National Minimum Wage to the National Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari, does not translate to a strike.
The Congress on Monday, in a statement by the General Secretary, Dr. Peter Ozo-Eson, recalled that the National Executive Council of NLC met on 17th of December last year and directed that they hold nationwide mobilisation of workers and its allies, if by 31st December 2018 the bill on the National Minimum Wage has yet to be sent to the National Assembly to be passed as an Act of Parliament.
“We immediately announced then that on Tuesday, 8th January 2019, there will be a nationwide mass mobilisation and protests simultaneously across all states in Nigeria. This does not translate to a strike”, he stressed.
While speaking on the story making the rounds in some section of the media, which misrepresented the protest to mean a strike, Ozo-Eson said thus, ” Its on record that each time we had cause to embark on a national strike, we say so publicly without any equivocation. We still don’t understand where the story about a strike commencing tomorrow came from.
“Already, all our State Councils, affiliate unions and allies in other pro-people mass organisations now popularly referred to as Civil Society Organisations have been fully informed and mobilised to ensure the success of tomorrow’s mass protests in all the states and the Federal Capital Territory”, he added.
He further emphasized, that when a date is decided for the commencement of a strike subsequently, the Congress will inform the public appropriately.
