Day 1 (Strike 1)

It’s just past 10 am on the first day of the strike. The NLC strike, that is. The petrol workers’ strike has been called off, remember? (Try to keep up, guys)

I got calls from a couple of colleagues earlier this morning asking if I was at work? “No.” If I’m going to go to work? “No.”

Turns out that some people who were attempting to go to the Island today got turned back, probably by representatives of the Labour Congress. They had to go back home and here we all sit, watching the news to keep up.

The President of the Trade Union Congress was on Sunrise Daily this morning, to explain the Union’s position.
It’s a great show on Channels TV for getting topical issues clarified and I’m glad I watched it because after what the TUC Prez explained, I now understand that the Labour Congress isn’t being pedantic: yesterday the FG reduced the pump price from the N75/litre the Obasanjo administration announced before leaving, to N70/litre. However the Congress insisted on full reversion to the previous price of N65 and went on with the strike because of that.

While it may appear that the strike is on over N5/litre, the guy explained that the manner in which VAT and petrol prices were raised is also being protested. It is statutory for a stakeholder’s meeting to be held before such price increases are made and he alleged that no such meeting held. Stakeholders include the various Unions: NLC, TUC, PENGASSAN etc

I agree wholeheartedly that if this is allowed to slide by, precedence would’ve been set and we will wake up one day to the announcement that petrol is N150/litre, too bad if we don’t like it.
The question came up: “why didn’t the Unions react earlier?” afterall it was the previous administration that implemented these price increases. From what the TUC guy said, they chose to be silent to allow for a peaceful handover process.

Perhaps it’s a good thing they were quiet about it…who knows, perhaps if there were strikes and all sorts of crises at the point of Obasanjo’s departure he might have declared a state of emergency and presented that as a reason to prolong his stay in the leadership?

Now, being a crusty old cynic, I don’t know how much of what I heard this morning is really the true picture of things. As the saying goes, there is no one truth, only different versions of it and so far I’ve only heard the Union’s side.