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Labour
leaders meet today on new strike
By Victor
Ebimomi
Reporter,
Lagos
Hazy details on a potential
second phase of the nationwide strike over fuel price hikes would become
clearer today when the National Executive Council (NEC) of the Nigeria
Labour Congress (NLC) meets in Abuja to discuss the
matter.
NEC member Monday Aguele
confirmed in an interview that the meeting is scheduled for 10 a.m at
Labour House and top on the agenda is the step to be taken since the
government has refused to revert to the old fuel
prices.
Aguele, President of the Steel
and Engineering Workers Union of Nigeria (SEWUN), added that a scrutiny of
the activities of the palliative committee set up in the wake of the last
warning strike would also be conducted.
Said he: �We are having our
NEC meeting tomorrow (today). We want to review the last strike. As you
know the price of fuel has been increased. We want to know what happens at
state industrial unions; the level of participation and what we can do now
that the government has failed to revert the prices.
�We also want to look at the
committee that has been set up in which the congress president is a
member. We want to hear what has happened, so that we will be able to
review what we are going to do next�.
On its part, the Trade Union
Congress of Nigeria TUC will meet on Wednesday to take a decision on the
next line of action.
Its General Secretary John
Kolawole said Labour and civil society groups will also meet on Sunday to
harmonise their positions.
The Labour and the Civil
Society Coalition (LASCO) embarked on a four-day warning strike from
October 11 to 14 to force the government to revert the prices, raised on
September 23.
After the action ended, the
coalition gave the government a two-week ultimatum, which expires this
Thursday, with a threat to resume it if its demands are not
met.
Labour has promised that the
next phase of the strike would be total.
Meanwhile, rather than a
reversal of the prices, there are indications that they could continue to
soar at the whims and caprices of oil marketers.
Petroleum Products Pricing and
Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) Executive Secretary Olawale Olaleye stated last
week that the agency could not guarantee that pump prices would remain at
N53 per litre, and that they would be left to market
forces.
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