Why planned cash crunch strike was suspended —NLC

Stories by Christian Appolos | Abuja

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has given reasons it suspended its planned nationwide industrial action. NLC said it is important to put out information on the issue to help Nigerians understand why the planned strike was put on hold.

In a press release signed by its President, Comrade Joe Ajaero, NLC said it wants Nigerians to collaborate with it in its efforts to rescue the country from bad governance and government policies that cause economic hardship.

Comrade Ajaero said, “It has become important that we inform Nigerians through this medium of the reasons behind our decision to suspend the proposed nationwide strike and picketing of the headquarters and offices of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) across the nation.

“Recall that we called for the strike based on the unfortunate, ill-conceived and poorly executed currency redesign policy of the CBN which had brought untold sufferings on the people and workers across the length and breadth of the federation. The situation had degenerated to the extent that citizens were forced to spend on the average about 30 percent of their income to access their hard earned cash, leading to the emergence of trade by barter as an option in some communities around the nation.

“Subsequently, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) immediately engaged us and we demanded that certain measures be taken to make cash available to all Nigerians. Some of these measures were our insistence on Saturday and Sunday full banking services until a healthy cash situation is restored and the expansion and deepening of their sorting and issuing operations to release cash to all bank branches across the nation.

“The NLC had since then held two sessions of its NEC to discuss the issues and review the level of compliance with our demands by the CBN to make cash available to Nigerians wherever they may be located in the country. In our meeting on March 28, NEC received live reports from all the states of the federation and local governments on the cash situation in their respective locations.

“Following the reports received, and in collaboration with the TUC who also had their NEC to discuss the same issues, we resolved to suspend the proposed nation wide strike planned for Wednesday, March 29 since there is significant improvement in the availability of cash across the nation.”

“That meanwhile, the CBN should ensure that total normalcy is restored to cash availability within the nation in the next two weeks; that NLC will embark on nationwide strike without warning if the cash situation degenerates instead of returning to normalcy.

“Finally, we set up a joint committee at the national and state levels to monitor and ensure sustainable compliance by the CBN towards ending the cash crunch and removing the siege on Nigerians.

“These were some of the bases upon which our decisions rested and follow-up action to ensure that CBN remains compliant and not renege on the agreed path towards the restoration of normalcy in the cash situation.

“We want to assure Nigerians that though there are other critical issues confronting us as a people, we are continuously committed to making sure that we roll back all anti-workers and people policies of the government.”

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