According to the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), a trade union cannot end a strike that it did not start.
In an interview with Channels Television’s Politics Today on Monday night, NLC President Joe Ajaero made this claim in response to reports that the NLC had withdrawn from the two-day warning strike it had initiated in opposition to the removal of fuel subsidies by the federal government.
His stance was taken just hours after a meeting between the labour movement and the federal government ended in a deadlock regarding the same topic.
It calls for fixing the nation’s refineries, addressing the effects of petrol price increases, reviewing the minimum wage, providing a realistic CNG alternative roadmap, and paying professors’ salary arrears.
Ajaero responded when asked if the NLC need the TUC, “We can operate alone, and we can work cooperatively when we agree.
The NLC won’t care, though, if we issue a strike notice and a union that didn’t issue a strike notice later announces that it is calling off a strike that it did not call for.
According to the NLC president, any union might declare a strike. He continued, “TUC can declare a strike and proceed with the notice; NLC can declare a strike and proceed with the notice.”
However, he asserted that the NLC would not claim it was not a part of a strike if the TUC issued a strike notice “because they didn’t even say they were part of it in the first instance.”
He claims that those processes are being simplified.
Ajaero remarked, “I wonder if the ministry is enjoying it.”
