Bernice Larryoboh
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) last week threatened to embark on an industrial action on Wednesday, June 7 against the increment in price of petrol occasioned by President Bola Tinubu’s inaugural speech where he declared that fuel subsidy is gone.
NLC president, Joe Ajaero, said the government, particularly the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited had up until Wednesday to revert to the old price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) otherwise referred to as petrol.
However, the labour unions announced the suspension of the proposed industrial actions after a meeting between their leaders and representatives of the federal government on Monday.
For many Nigerians, the decision of the labour leadership shows that they threw their weight behind the same ruling class that has infected the country with artificial fuel subsidies, and many other irregularities.
The refusal of NLC to stage protest against the hardship being faced by Nigerians is one of the reasons many people now regard organised labour as a toothless dog that cannot bite but only bark.
Nigerians argued that the NLC has developed a penchant over the years for mass public deception over issues of serious national importance.
“These NLC and TUC leaders were catching cruise with FG instead of negotiating Subsidy Removal palliative. They suspended the #NLCStrike without addressing the fundamental issues. How do they expect workers to commute to work?”, a twitter user queried.
