Revert to status quo on subsidy, let's continue discussion - TUC tells FG

The Trade Union Congress (TUC) has urged the Federal Government to revert to status quo ante on its decision to remove fuel subsidy.

Festus Osifo, TUC President, spoke while addressing newsmen at the end of an emergency meeting of the congress’s National Executive Council (NEC) meeting on Friday in Abuja.

According to Osifo, the TUC is unhappy with the unilateral decision of the Federal Government to remove the subsidy.

He said the TUC’s expectation was that the government should have engaged the organised labour.

“Having noted this, we wish to state that the NEC-in- session resolved that discussions with Federal Government should continue while demanding that the government should revert to status quo ante.

“The status quo ante should be maintained while discussion continues as we had a meeting with the government on Wednesday.

“During that discuss, they gave us a list of all the things they would do and they also demanded to know our thinking and what we are putting up.

“We told them the lists of the things we want to put forward, we will not submit them now but put them forward to our organs, to discuss and seek mandate from them of the things we can put forward,’‘ he said.

According to Osifo, it is how the government reacts to TUC’s demands that will determine the union’s next line of action.

“We will wait till Sunday when we will meet with the representatives of the government.

“Once we are done with that meeting then the TUC is going to put its demands forward, it is how they react to those demands will determine our next line of action,” he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Nigeria Labour Congress also had its NEC meeting and has said it will embark on a nationwide strike as from June 7 if the issue of fuel subsidy removal and increase in the price of fuel is not reverted.