Calabar, Nigeria – The Organised Labour in Cross River State has given reasons why workers are on strike despite Governor Bassey Otu’s approval of N70,000 minimum wage.
Converseer reports on Monday, December 2, that government offices in Calabar, the State capital, and other places are under lock and key, as the workers joined the nationwide strike on the non-implementation of national minimum wage.
The strike is coming in barely 12 hours after the Governor approved the N70,000 national minimum wage earlier approved by President Bola Tinubu in July this year.
Speaking to Converseer on the phone on Monday, Comr. Monday Ogbodum, Chairman of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Cross River State Chapter, said the strike was a directive from the national for all States whose Governor is yet to implement the N70,000 minimum wage.
“Recall that we got a directive from the National Headquarters requesting that every government that has not started implementation of the National Minimum Wage, from the 1st of December, workers should proceed on indefinite strike,” Ogbodum said.
Speaking further, the Cross River TUC Chairman, said, “You can also recall that before now, on the 25th and 26th November, we had a 2-day warning strike to the government in preparation for the indefinite strike from 1st December.
“Having done that, the government became proactive and engaged the Organised Labour for negotiation for the N70,000 minimum wage. But, before then, there was already an action committee that was put in place. So, the action committee, in an attempt to put a notice across that the strike would commence as scheduled, issued Bulletin 5, which came out on Saturday, preparing workers that the indefinite strike would commence on Monday, being 2nd, since 1st was on Sunday.
“Having concluded the negotiation yesterday being 1st, the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed, we couldn’t have immediately called off the strike. As I speak, I came out from the Congress; we are just holding Congress now to discuss, thereby, after this Congress we’re holding, there will be a formal notice, which we’ll term ‘Bulletin 6’ – calling off the strike, and then requesting our workers to resume work from tomorrow (3rd December).”
Earlier in the conversation, Comr. Ogbodum while commenting on Governor Otu’s decision to approve the national minimum wage, said, “The Governor of Cross River State, Senator Prince Bassey Edet Otu, formally made the pronouncement of adopting the N70,000 minimum wage and the committee which handled the consequential adjustment presented the report on that and an MoU was signed between Government and Organised Labour in Cross River State to that effect with commencement on the 1st Day of December 2024.”