Osamagbe Imadiyi
Yesterday, the Federal Government and Organized Labor reached an agreement regarding the means of bringing down the cost of transportation and major goods, particularly food.
This occurred on the day that the House of Representatives requested that the Federal Government reverse the recent increase in the price of gasoline and move quickly to stabilize the price of cooking gas and gasoline through targeted interventions, such as short-term price relief programs, tax breaks, or LPG subsidies for low-income households.
In addition, the government decided to call a meeting with state governors to make sure that the N70,000 new minimum wage goes into effect nationally in October, following the meeting that took place last night in the Office of the Secretary to Government of the Federation, or SGF.
According to sources present at the meeting, the government and Labour also decided to keep talking and engaging in order to warm up their previously icy relationship.
“In the first instance, the government committed to releasing more than 2,000 CNG conversion kits. In order to fulfill the 90 organized labor commitments made earlier, it also pledged to release 45 CNG buses to Labor.
“As part of efforts at crashing transport fares across the country, the Federal Government will hold a meeting with state governors to fully embrace the CNG buses. This will also affect the cost of foodstuffs as it will reduce the costs of transporting food items from different locations to consumers drastically
“It also promised to incorporate labour into the economic council, so labour will participate and monitor economic policies of government, instead of government throwing policies at labour and Nigerians that may result in agitation or protest.”
The issue of the government not upholding the agreement was also brought up, according to a second source, who also stated that the government acknowledged its shortcomings and pledged to improve.When asked if labor was happy with the meeting, the insider responded, “It is not about satisfaction, but a way forward from the past where government was not talking to organized labor.” The likelihood of disputes between the government and labor decreasing is high if this pattern or practice persists.
He said that the purpose of the joint National Executive Council (NEC) meeting between the two labor centers—the NLC and the TUC—was to inform members of the conclusions drawn from the meeting with the government.