As we go to press with this month’s Socialist Bulletin it is not clear what the outcome of the minimum wage struggle is. Over three weeks ago the NLC gave the Government a week’s notice to resolve the issue, but nothing has happened.
It is clear that only a robust and indefinite general strike will win the national living minimum wage we so desperately need. The organized private sector is claimed to align with the Federal Government in the resolve to peg the new National Minimum Wage at N62,000, while the Governors are claiming they cannot even afford that amount. The NLC and the TUC are currently sticking to N250,000, therefore; the tripartite negotiation has hit a debacle leaving the expectant Nigerian workers in utter bewilderment as their collective fate is left to hang in limbo.
The situation has been allowed to drag and fester by the labour leaders who amidst the prevailing impasse left the country to attend the ILO Annual Conference in Geneva. This action of the Labour Leaders has not only occasioned delay in organize labour’s appropriate action against the recalcitrant posture of the government in the obviously duplicitous Tripartite Committee in which the government is using the organize private sector as mere cannon fodder for its anti-worker gambit, it left the very expedient matter in the realm of spreading doubt and uncertainty.
We need resolute leadership and a clear declaration that the strike will now continue until our victory is achieved.
We are poor people living in a rich nation – we have to use our collective power to force a change. Sitting for months in the Minimum Wage Committee did not produce a decent minimum wage, it was only the threat of a general strike that brought some movement. A robust indefinite strike is the only way for us to achieve a decent minimum wage.
We desperately need the ‘relaxed’ general strike to be re-started as soon as possible. It is clear that Tinubu is not going to deliver on the expectations of the NLC/TUC for a minimum wage of N250,000. We need the strike to start again before Tinubu sends his proposed law to the National Assembly. Waiting will only demoralise workers and further reduce the momentum of the campaign.
We need workers and trade unionists to demand immediate action from their leaders at branch, state and national levels. We need to flood the trade union leaders with letters and motions demanding immediate action until the NLC/TUC demands are met in full.
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