Strikes were organised in five states and the FCT at the end of November and early December last year. Some definite gains were achieved. The minimum wage is now generally being implemented much earlier than was the case with the ₦30,000 minimum wage. In several cases, the consequential adjustments are better than for the previous increase. But for many states the ₦70,000 minimum wage has yet to fully implemented and there is no agreement on payment of arrears from July 2024.
Even with the full implementation of the new minimum wage and consequential adjustment, workers across Nigeria would still be far poorer than they were just five years ago. The government increased the price of petrol by over 500% (this led to huge increases in the prices of goods and services generally). But it would not increase the salary of workers by as little as 150%.
The new minimum wage is not enough to feed a family for a month and will inevitably lead to greater corruption, criminal activity and worse insecurity. We all have a role to play in changing this situation. We need to make the trade unions far more active and so successful at improving our salaries and working conditions.
It is only the collective strength of trade unions, especially strikes that will make governments change their minds. Most governors know that they are looting from the public. We can only change this by threatening them and forcing them to pay the workers a living wage indexed to the cost of living.
We have to make sure that the trade unions are run far more democratically. We have to ensure that decisions on reaching agreements are made collectively with the maximum number of comrades directly involved.
We need to get far better organized. We need groups of trade unionists who want to organize a serious fight to improve our lives to meet on a monthly basis with other Socialist Labour supporters in each state. We need to build a rank and file movement in each trade union – see: https://tinyurl.com/rank-file-move
We need to learn the lessons from this strike. Socialist Labour has published a pamphlet which analyses the strikes and provides specific recommendations for the future. We need to ensure that this pamphlet is read and discussed across the trade union movement. The full pamphlet is available for free download, please read, discus with other comrades in your trade union and organise to meet:
https://socialistlabour.com.ng/state-strikes-december-2024-why-did-we-not-win-more/
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Download our full Socialist Bulletin for January 2025 with the link below:
https://socialistlabour.com.ng/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/SL-bulletin-FEB-2025-1.pdf
