The meeting between the Federal Government and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) which was held on Monday to avert the imminent indefinite strike that the union had threatened to embark on ended in a deadlock without any resolution to the demands of the union.
The Minister of Labour and Employment, Simon Lalong; and Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, met with the NLC President, Joe Ajaero, and other leaders in Abuja to stop organized labour from embarking on another industrial action which the Labour Centre tagged as “anti-poor” policies propagated by the President Bola Tinubu-led administration.
IdanNews gathered that Lalong promised to partner with organized labour to address the demands of the labour unions in a just and balanced way during the meeting.
He urged the NLC to adopt dialogue as the primary method for addressing concerns surrounding the removal of subsidy on petrol and appealed to the labour leaders to be realistic and frank in the discussions.
The minister also expressed optimism that the meeting would lead to a resolution that is of national interest.
However, the meeting which had in attendance senior officials of the ministry, the national president of the NLC, Joe Ajaero, the general secretary, Emmanuel Ugboaja, national president of the Nigeria Union of Teachers, Titus Amba among others, reportedly ended without any concrete solution.
The NLC President Joe Ajaero in response said his team was in the meeting with mixed feelings, to find out whether “something will happen or not,” as many similar meetings in the past had failed to yield a positive response.
He further noted that the past strikes that the minister referred to were a result of the frustration Nigerian workers faced due to the effects of the hardship occasioned by the removal of fuel subsidies.
He noted that none of the agreements with the Federal Government was addressed despite a series of meetings that were held.