National Minimum Wage: Organised Labour in Ekiti joins NLC strike

The leadership of the organized labour in Ekiti State, has directed all the workers in the State to join the nationwide strike declared by the Nigeria Labour Congress(NLC) and Trade Union Congress(TUC) to press for new National Minimum Wage.

The strike was declared by NLC and TUC, which was deemed to have a binding force on all their affiliates to press the Federal and State Governments to accede to their requests for a new Minimum Wage for workers across the country.

The labour confirmed to newsmen in Ado Ekiti on Tuesday that the strike action will affect both the public and private sectors.

Workers, including commercial drivers, Okada operators, banks, market men and women were directed to should stay off businesses.

The directive was given by the State Chairmen of TUC, Com Odunayo Adesoye and his counterpart in NLC, Com. Ade Adesanmi, in the state capital.

The TUC boss, who spoke on behalf of the labour leaders, said the strike action will be total in Ekiti, saying the body had already entered into agreement with Civil Society Organisations to ensure its success.

He said the leaderships of the labour centres in Ekiti had agreed to coalesce and ensure the success of the nationwide strike, which begins 12 midnight on Wednesday.

Adesoye stated that the current minimum wage to workers had impoverished the workforce, adding that time has come for workers to begin to savour the fruits of their labour through a package that could truly take them home.

“The strike action in Ekiti commencing from tomorrow will be total. It is going to be a total paralysis, because both public and private sectors will be affected.

“ The banks, commercial drivers, Okada operators and sole business owners will participate in this strike. We have reached out to the Civil Society Organisations to ensure will mobilize for the strike.

“We are not going to shy away from picketing areas that fail to conform with our directive as given from Abuja.

“This is a fight that has to do with our collective destiny. We must ensure that our commonwealth should be evenly distributed. It shouldn’t be concentrated in the hands of a few Nigerian leaders to begin to feed fat on the nation.

“What they said they are giving us is a take home, but what we are getting cannot take us half home in the real sense of it, so we must demand for a fair share of our national treasure.

“By tomorrow in Ekiti, we direct all workers in the private and public sectors to stay at home”, Adesoye directed.