FG moves to avert railway workers’ strike

The federal government is making frantic efforts to stop the planned three-day warning strike by workers of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), Daily Trust can report.

 The strike, which was to press home their demand for increased welfare packages has been slated to hold from Thursday, November 18th to November 20th.

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 A letter titled, “Notice and Directive to embark on 3-day warning strike nationwide,” dated November 12th was addressed to the District Chairman/Secretary Nigeria Union of Railway workers and Senior Staff Association.

 To avert the strike, the Minister of Transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi had invited the labour unions into a meeting on Saturday which ended in a deadlock.

 General Secretary of the Nigerian Union of Railway Workers (NUR), Comrade Segun Esan, in a chat with Daily Trust said while the meeting with the Minister “ended in a subtle deadlock”, the unions were open to further engagements.

 He however said the demand by the minister that the unions should call off the warning strike before any talk was “a mission impossible.”

 According to him, the unions cannot call off the strike without any tangible offer on the various demands by the unions. He said there was no condition of service in the Nigeria Railway.

 He said while the present administration was reviving the railway sector transiting from narrow gauge to standard gauge service, it had abandoned the workers to drive the ongoing transformation.

 Esan decried what he called the “unfriendly and anti-workers posturing” of the minister, saying, “We have been on this struggle for about five to six years but what we have been told have been stories upon stories.”

 He said the warning strike would continue as planned, adding, “It is already a done deal and irreversible unless we are convinced that our demands are right at our doorsteps.”

 “When we resume the warning strike and things don’t change, we will embark on an indefinite strike,” he added.

 However, the Managing Director of the NRC, Engr. Fidet Okhiria, in a chat with our correspondent, expressed optimism that the strike action would be averted, saying efforts were being made to engage the unions to see the reason why they should call off the strike.