The organised labour, comprising the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and the Trade Union of Nigeria, TUC, has declared an indefinite strike, sheduled to begin today, in a bid to lobby the Federal government to respond to its demands.

The NLC and the TUC began negotiations with the federal government over a new minimum wage since the government policies announced last year by President Bola Tinubu led to an increase in the cost of goods and services.

President Bola Tinubu, upon assumption of office on May 29, 2023, announced the removal of fuel subsidy which is a major benefit enjoyed by citizens from the government. Since the removal of the subsidy, prices of goods and services have skyrocketed. The Labour is also demanding a reversal of the Electricity tarriff hike initiated by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) on April 3, 2024.

To address the concerns, the Organised Labour initially proposed N615,000 as the new minimum wage, but later revised its demand to N497,000 last week and then further lowered it to N494,000 on Tuesday. However, it rejected the federal government’s offer of N60,000.

 A last minute intervention by the representatives of the federal government, leadership of the National Assembly and officials of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), on Sunday night, over the proposed national minimum wage also ended in gridlock

The meeting which began around 5:50 p.m. and ended at 8:45 p.m. was held behind closed-door at the National Assembly complex, Abuja.

Today, all members of the formal and informal sector are expected to join the labour union to fight for a better living condition for citizens and workers in the country. 

Labour Strike: Electricity Workers Shut Down National Grid

In solidarity with the directive of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) to begin an indefinite strike over the new minimum wage, electricity workers have shut down the National Grid, resulting in nationwide blackout.

This was disclosed by the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) in a statement signed by its spokesperson, Ndidi Mbah, on Monday morning.

TCN said workers have been chased from duty posts while others were beaten and wounded at some power facilities. It added that all its efforts at grid recovery were being frustrated by the unionists.

“The Transmission Company of Nigeria hereby informs the general public that the Labour Union has shut down the national grid, resulting in black out nationwide. The national grid shut down occured at about 2.19am this morning, 3rd June 2024.

“At about 1:15am this morning, the Benin Transmission Operator under the Independent System Operations unit of TCN reported that all operators were driven away from the control room and that staff that resisted were beaten while some were wounded in the course of forcing them out of the control room and without any form of control or supervision, the Benin Area Control Center was brought to zero.

“Other transmission substations that were shut down, by the Labour Union include the Ganmo, Benin, Ayede, Olorunsogo, Akangba and Osogbo Transmission Substations. Some transmission lines were equally opened due to the ongoing activities of the labour union.

“On the power generating side, power generating units from different generating stations were forced to shut down some units of their generating plants, the Jebba Generating Station was forced to shut down one of its generating units while three others in the same substation subsequently shut down on very high frequency. The sudden forced load cuts led to high frequency and system instability, which eventually shut down the national grid at 2:19am.

“At about 3.23am, however, TCN commenced grid recovery, using the Shiroro Substation to attempt to feed the transmission lines supplying bulk electricity to the Katampe Transmission Substation. The situation is such that the labour Union is still obstructing grid recovery nationwide.

“We will continue to make effort to recover and stabilize the grid to enable the restoration of normal bulk transmission of electricity to distribution load centres nationwide,” TCN stated.