Tuesday, May 17, 2016
Ajaero Reaction to " NO STRIKE"
Factional President of NLC, Joe Ajaero, yesterday, faulted the restraining order by NIC stopping the planned strike and mass protest.
Ajaero, while reacting to the restraining order by the President of NIC, Justice Babatunde Adejumo, contended that it was wrong for the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, to have gone to court over a matter that parties were already on a negotiation table.
He equally wondered why the President of NIC would give an order on an ex-parte application without putting the other party on notice as was the practice.
Ajaero said: “This was not the first time a court would try to stop labour action. If you could recall, when Comrade Adams Oshiomhole was the president of NLC, there was a court order against planned strike by NLC and TUC, which Oshiomhole described as a black market injunction.
“It was very wrong for the Attorney General of the Federation to have gone to court while parties in this case, the federal government and Labour, were already on the negotiation table.”
“Ajaero restated his earlier position that labour could not have mobilised sufficiently enough for today’s strike without exhausting all avenues for settlement.
“When we spoke with you yesterday (Monday), we insisted that there was no way we could mobilize, sensitize and even start an action tomorrow (Wednesday).
‘’That we would rather negotiate and it is only when the negotiations might have collapsed that we take the option of going through any action.
“On the basis of that, we agreed that a committee should be set up to, among other things, look at the issue of minimum wage; look at the issue of N500bn social investment; look at the issue of setting up or reconstituting the PPPRA board and review the N145 new pump price of petroleum product.
‘’The committee is to report back in two weeks time. I won’t like to drag it more than this than to say this is the summary of the agreement reached.,” he stated.
Ajaero, however, insisted that his faction, including NUPENG, PENGASSAN, NUEE, among others, would not go on strike over fuel price hike by the Federal Government.
He spoke after his faction’s meeting with federal government officials ended early , yesterday morning.
This was a few hours after the meeting with Ayuba Wabba’s faction ended. The meetings, which ended without conclusion, were in session at press time last night. They started late yesterday evening.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment