The Nigeria Labour Congress on Monday warned that its members will commence a nationwide strike without any formal notice if marketers increased the pump price of petrol without concluding the ongoing negotiations.
The NLC President, Joe Ajaero, admonished the Federal Government to stop the falling value of the naira.
The threat by the organised labour followed hints by oil marketers, on Sunday, that the cost of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, would rise to between N680/litre and N720/litre in the coming weeks should the dollar continue to trade between N910 and N950 at the parallel market.
The marketers said dealers seeking to import PMS were being forced to put the plans on hold due to the scarcity of foreign exchange to import the commodity.
The warning came barely one week after the local currency crossed the N900/dollar ceiling, with the naira selling at over N945/dollar at the parallel market on Friday.
But speaking at the ongoing African Alliance of Trade Unions meeting in Abuja, on Monday, Ajaero advised the Federal Government to change “those bad economic policies that make workers wages next to nothing.”
He said, “As we’re here now. They’re contemplating on increasing the pump price of petroleum products. But the Minister of Labour for some time now will only go to the Minister of Justice to come up with an injunction to hold the hands of labour not to respond. They have started floating ideas of a likely increase in the price of petroleum products.
“But let me say this: Nigerian workers will not give any strike notice if we have not addressed the consequences of the last two increases in fuel pump price, and we wake up from sleep to hear that they have tampered with the fuel pump price again.
“I want to plead with the government that those bad economic policies that make our wages next to nothing should be checked. If you check those policies that lead to inflation and devaluation of the currency, we will be comfortable even where we are. If naira is at par with the dollar today, we will ask you to leave minimum wage at N30,000.’’
Continuing, the labour leader noted, “If inflation is checked to zero, we will ask you to leave things the way they are. But inflation is flying, and by the admittance of the National Bureau of Statistics, we have over 133 million Nigerians that are multi-dimensionally poor.
“I think these are the issues the government should address. If we go for a wage increase tomorrow, the inflation that will follow suit will destroy it.”
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