How Tinubu’s Government Will Outsmart Organized Labour
The industrial action of the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress has got a wider popularity among the Nigerian populace. It’s not the first (and won’t be the last) time the federal reserve and labour unions would be at daggers drawn. However, Nigerians are giving their maximum support to the organized labour across all spectra.
But the labours are not smart enough to beat the federal government in the game. It’s surprising that the workers would surrender too soon with little to show for their agitation.
They declared an indefinite strike starting from Monday, 3 June. They said that the government isn’t committed to their “living wage” and that the negotiation has collapsed.
The strike started yesterday and it was enforced by the NLC and the TUC. A meeting was summoned after each side had accused the other of not being patriotic or not being sensitive to the plights of the common workers.
At the meeting, they both agreed that the federal government under President Bola Tinubu would increase the minimum wage to above N60,0000. That’s the point the labours missed. The federal government needs to be specific in its offer. It said that negotiation would continue daily. For what, specifically? Why couldn’t they agree on a specific amount yesterday?
The deal hurriedly made and signed by the organized labour means they have played into the hands of the government. It has given the government more time to play on the intelligence of the workers and to finally defeat the NLC and the TUC.
In the deal, a copy of which has been received and reviewed by the Online Parrot News, no specific date was fixed for the completion of the negotiation. That means it could take the remaining years of the first term of Tinubu’s Government.
Apart from that, the meeting addressed only one of the demands of the workers. They are also asking the Tinubu’s government to reverse the electricity tarrif. It was N66 per kilowatt till the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission decided to astronomically increased it to N225, Online Parrot News reported.
There is no commitment to that particular demand in the deal. Have the two umbrella unions dumped the agitation for the masses? The only way every Nigerian can benefit from the struggle is through reversal of the electricity tarrif. That would mean that the supporters of the labours have been jilted.
Or the federal government has beaten the NLC and TUC in the battle. That is the second probable explanation. At the end of every analysis, the federal government wins again.
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