Strike: Labour’s meeting with NASS Leaders ends in deadlock

A meeting between the top echelon of the National Assembly and the national executives of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) ended in deadlock on Sunday. The meeting was aimed at convincing the organised labour to embrace dialogue and shelve their planned strike action scheduled for Monday. Recall that Labour had […]

A meeting between the top echelon of the National Assembly and the national executives of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) ended in deadlock on Sunday.

The meeting was aimed at convincing the organised labour to embrace dialogue and shelve their planned strike action scheduled for Monday.

Recall that Labour had announced plans to commence an indefinite strike nationwide sequel to the failure of the federal government to meet their minimum wage demands.

The meeting which was called by principal officers of the National Assembly was presided by the Senate President Godswill Akpabio and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajuddeen Abbas.

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Present at the meeting were the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator George Akume; Chief of Staff to the President, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila; Minister of Finance, Dr Wale Edun;Minister  of Budget and National Planning, Atiku Bagudu.

Others were Minister of State for Labour and Productivity, Nkiruka Onyejiocha; Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris; Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi and Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Folasade Yemi-Esan.

Addressing newsmen after the closed-door meeting which lasted for four hours, President of the TUC, said, “The Senate President appealed to us to call off the strike. But we can’t sit here and call off the strike because we have others organs. We will take the appeals to our various organs.

“We don’t have the powers to call off the strike action. For now, the strike action will commence, while we discuss with our organs.”