Oyo NLC seeks direct negotiation with Makinde as strike deadline looms

The Oyo state chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has insisted on presenting its demands directly to Seyi Makinde, the governor.

The union directed civil and public servants in the state to assemble in the government secretariat on Monday to compel the governor to speak with them.

The directive was given at the union’s emergency meeting on Thursday in Ibadan.

TheCable had reported that the NLC said it would embark on a nationwide strike over the hike in the price of petrol and the high cost of living in the country.

The strike is scheduled to commence on Wednesday, August 2.

Speaking with journalists at the end of the meeting, Kayode Martins, NLC chairman, Oyo state chapter, said the union would no longer have conversations with any intermediary over the demands of workers and pensioners in the state.

Martins asked all workers in the state not to resume at their various offices on Monday, but converge at the state government secretariat by 7.30 a.m. to force the governor to speak with them directly.

He said the union had written a series of letters to the governor but the letters were not delivered to him.

“We insist on seeing the governor in order to speak with him directly without any intermediary. If he sees us, he will definitely address us,” Martins said.

“We have not had a roundtable discussion with the governor in the last four years.

“We have series of demands like the deductions of salaries that have not been paid in the last six months and outstanding promotion, which those promoted are yet to receive their promotion letters.”

Martins listed other demands to include payment of pension gratuities and arrears, review of pension payment which was last reviewed since 2007, and the issue of palliatives.

He said that the committee on palliatives set up by the governor had yet to meet and that nothing had been done on it.

Martins said that workers, pensioners and citizens of the state were currently suffering as a result of high cost of living.

He said that going to work had become a serious challenge for the workers.

He said the outcome of the negotiation with the governor on Monday would determine the next line of action by the union.

He insisted that whatever might be happening at the national headquarters of NLC had nothing to do with the issue the chapter was having with the state government.

Also speaking, Olusegun Abatan, secretary of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP) in the state, said some pensioners were receiving as low as N500 monthly.

Abatan said that pension was reviewed last in the state 20 years ago, adding that pensioners were facing lots of challenges due to petrol subsidy removal.