By Akpevwe Okuse
The Organized Labor has stated that it will resume its suspended strike on Tuesday, noting that a minimum wage of N62,000 or N100,000 is unacceptable.
Describing N62,000 minimum wage as starvation wage, the Tripartite Union insisted on N250,000, being its latest demand at the last meeting with the Federal government on Friday.
This was revealed by the Assistant General Secretary of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Mr Chris Onyeka, while fielding questions on Channels Television today.
Onyeka stated that the one-week grace period, which the Federal Government was given last Tuesday, June 4, 2024, would expire at midnight on Tuesday, June 11, 2024.
He stated that if the Federal Government and National Assembly do not address the workers’ demands by tomorrow (Tuesday), the NLC and TUC will convene to discuss the possibility of resuming the nationwide strike that was temporarily halted last week.
“Our position is very clear. We have never considered accepting N62,000 or any other wage that we know is below what we know is able to take Nigerian workers home. We will not negotiate a starvation wage.
“We have never contemplated N100,000 let alone N62,000. We are still at N250,000, that is where we are, and that is what we considered enough concession to the government and the other social partners in this particular situation.
“We are not just driven by frivolities but by the realities of the marketplace; the realities of things we buy every day, bags of rice, yam, garri, and all of that.
“The Federal Government and the National Assembly have the call now. It is not our call. Our demand is there for them (the government) to look at and send an Executive Bill to the National Assembly, and for the National Assembly to look at what we have demanded, the various facts of the law, and then come up with a National Minimum Act that meets our demands.” he said
Onyeka continued: “If that does not meet our demand, we have given the Federal Government a one-week notice to look at the issues, and that one week expires tomorrow (Tuesday). If after tomorrow, we have not seen any tangible response from the government, the organs of Organised Labour will meet to decide on what next.
“It was clear what we said. We said we are relaxing a nationwide indefinite strike. It’s like putting a pause on it.
“So, if you put a pause on something and the organs that govern us as trade unions decide that we should remove that pause, it means that we go back to what was in existence before,” he noted.