Labour Agrees to Temporarily suspend Strike

Elombah.com

13 January 2012

Labour Agrees to Temporarily suspend Strike        

The NLC and TUC; two major unions leading a national strike paralyzing Nigeria say they’ll suspend their actions just for the weekend. The move announced Friday will not affect a threat by the oil unions to halt production on Sunday, and the nationwide strike is expected to resume Monday. The crippling strike began after Nigeria’s government ended a popular gas subsidy program that had kept fuel prices low for more than two decades.

Gas prices doubled overnight in a nation where most subsist on less than $2 a day. Transportation and food costs also have skyrocketed, leading to demonstrations across Nigeria.

The union leaders said the government had offered to put a slight subsidy back in place to bring down gas prices, but the unions rejected it as insufficient, AP reports.

Talks between the Federal Government and Nigeria Trade Unions was deadlocked on Thursday and the strikes over the removal of fuel subsidy continues TODAY as Labour and Presidency will resume talks on Saturday.