Federal Workers Back NLC, Vow To Shutdown All Secretariats

The Federal Workers Forum (FWF) has vowed to shut down all federal secretariats across the country in support of the Nigeria Labour Congress’ (NLC) two-day warning strike.

The FWF’s national coordinator, Comrade Andrew Emelieze, said in a statement that the forum was “in full support” of the strike, which is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, September 5th and Wednesday, September 6th.

Emelieze said that federal workers were also “badly affected” by the economic crisis caused by the recent hike in the price of petrol. He said that the forum had written to the federal government to adjust wages automatically in line with the current economic realities, but that the government had not responded.

“It is over three months now that fuel subsidy had been removed and fuel has equally been increased twice by over 300%, with a price shift from N187 to over N620 but salaries have remained the same,” Emelieze said. “Federal workers within this period have gone through excruciatingly tough times. It has been stories of mass suffering and life has been made almost meaningless to the federal workers.”

Emelieze called on all federal workers to ensure that the strike is successful. He said that workers should shut down all federal government secretariats and other government offices during the strike period.

He also called on the NLC to pursue the strike to a “logical conclusion” and to stop the “mass cheating” of workers.

“The NLC must not disappoint Nigerians, the labour movement has our collective support,” Emelieze said.

The NLC is demanding that the federal government meet a number of demands, including:

• A 30% increase in the minimum wage
• The payment of all outstanding arrears of salaries, promotions, and duty tour allowances
• The immediate implementation of the consequential adjustment of salaries of workers in the public service
• The reversal of the recent increase in the price of petrol