By Victor Ahiuma-Young & Emeka Mamah
LEADERS of Nigeria Labour Con-gress, NLC and their Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC counterparts, yesterday vowed that there was  no going back on next week  three-day warning strike aimed at forcing the government to implement the N18,000 minimum wage.

This came as a meeting between the Federal Government through the Ministry of Labour and Productivity and the leaders of the two labour centres, NLC and TUC ended in a deadlock and labour insisted nothing would stop the planned strike scheduled for Wednesday October 10 to12.

Another meeting is however fixed for Monday afternoon between Vice-President Namadi Sambo-led Presidential Technical Committee set up at the Wednesday’ Council of State meeting, and leaders of NLC and TUC to see if the planned industrial action could be aborted.

Already workers of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, have resolved to join the planned strike action and also threatened to campaign against President Goodluck Jonathan in the next elections if the Federal Government fails to rescind its decision to disengage 50,000 of its members.

Saturday Vanguard gathered that the Minister of Labour, Chief Chukwuemeka Wogu tried in vain to dissuade leaders of NLC and TUC which had both the President of NLC, Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar and its TUC counterpart, Comrade Peter Esele, in attendance to put off the strike, but the labour leaders were said to have remained adamant, saying the three-day warning strike would go ahead as planned.

One of the labour leaders that attended the meeting said: We told the Minister that the only thing that can stop the strike is for the government to send the Bill on the new Minimum Wage to the National Assembly and also make sure it is passed before Wednesday 10. We said that it is possible to stop another strike on the issue, but that the Wednesday strike cannot be stop. From there, the Minister told us that the Presidential Technical Committee on the Minimum Wage would meet with us on Monday after noon.”

Similarly, the two labour centres have condemned the position of the National Council of State on the Minimum wage crisis, NLC and TUC noted  with deep regret, the decision of the National Council of State to technically repudiate the National Minimum Wage Agreement.

In a joint statement by both NLC’s General Secretary, Comrade John Odah and its TUC’s counterpart, Chief John Kolawole, yesterday, said:  It is amazing that in a country where the least paid councillor earns over N120,000 monthly, the Council is of the opinion that N18,000 is too much for a worker with his spouse and four children to earn.

The N18,000 Minimum Wage is the outcome of the  Tripartite  Committee On The National Minimum Wage established by the Federal Government and inaugurated on  July 14,2009 by the Secretary to the Federal Government. It is worthy to note that the  state governments were  represented  in  the Negotiating Committee and that the average minimum wage suggested by the thirteen state governments that submitted memoranda was N22,500.

It is therefore shocking that the N18,000 National Minimum Wage Agreement which was signed on behalf of the Federal Government by four ministers including those of Labour and Finance, representatives of the state governments, labour and private sector employers can be cast aside.”

“The TUC and NLC holds that  the part of honour lies in government respecting the spirit and letters of agreements it freely enters and that if the outcome of negotiations are not respected by government, it would be an invitation to anarchy. Ordinarily, following  the agreement which also included a draft bill, the procedure would have been for government to send the bill to the National Assembly to pass into law.

Surprisingly, Government after six months is still foot dragging. Given the foregoing,  and the setting up a ‘technical’ committee, the inevitable conclusion is  that  our political leaders in the Council are not advised on the plight of the common man and the urgency required in the implementation  of a new minimum wage in the country.

The NLC and TUC reiterates their directives to all workers to embark  on the three-day warning strike from Wednesday  10th November to Friday 12th November, 2010. This is preparatory to the indefinite strike that will follow should Government refuse to implement the Minimum Wage Agreement.

Meanwhile, Electricity workers in the country have resolved to join the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, during its three days warning strike over improved conditions of service starting from November 10, that they would campaign against President Goodluck Jonathan in the next elections if the Federal Government fails to rescind its decision to disengage 50,000 of its members.

Assistant General Secretary of the National Union of Electricity Employees, NUEE, in the north, Comrade Moses Amedu made this known in Kaduna yesterday during a prayer session aimed at invoking God’s furry against officials of the Federal Government planning to privatise the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, and in the process, sack 50,000 staff.

The prayer session was jointly organised by the NUEE and the Senior Staff Association of Electricity and Allied Company, SSAEAC, just as they carried placards denouncing the proposed retrenchment exercise.
Amedu told the workers that the directive to join the NLC during the three days warning strike came from the national secretariat of the union.

He said that there would be total blackout in the country within the three days warning strike in the country adding that apart from these measures, the NUEE would protest the sacking of its members even as they also rejected the N130 billion earmarked for payment of entitlements of those to be retrenched as they were allegedly not consulted on the modalities for such payments.