NLC to resist further increase in petrol pump price

Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) on Sunday rose from its Central Working Committee (CWC) meeting in Lagos, warning it would mobilise to resist attempt whatsoever to further increase the pump price of petrol.

The NLC in a communiqué read by Ayuba Wabba, president of one of the factions of the congress, said the last increase, which up the price from N87 to N145 per litre, had brought untold hardship on Nigerians, especially with an all-time high inflationary rate of 15 percent with stagnating workers’ income.

The congress noted that disposable family incomes had been completely eroded, and any further increase in pump price, with consequential effect on the prices of other items and transport cost, would be “death sentence on Nigerian workers” and therefore would be sternly resisted.

The CWC also resolved to resist attempt by various state government to muzzle workers through non-payment and slash of salaries, saying, “this runs contrary to all known local and international labour and conventions.”

It particularly condemned the Imo State government for attempting to reduce working days from five to three days. The NLC said governor was not vested with powers to illegally reduce working days. It resolved to back the workers in Imo State to stand against the governor, Rochas Okorocha.

The NLC also picked a date in August as the mourning day by workers and their civil society allies across Nigeria, for the two workers in Nasarawa State killed by the police who opened fire during a peaceful protest by workers to condemn a 50 percent slash in their salaries by the state government.

Wabba in the communiqué said the NLC would be mobilising workers to Nasarawa on August 8 to show solidarity with their Nasarawa State counterparts, even as he called on the state government to compensate the families of the dead and pick up the medical expenses of other workers injured by the police during the protest last month.