Bid to avert fuel strike
2004-06-08 12:09
Lagos - Nigerian labour leaders are due to attend a meeting called by government to avert a potentially crippling strike over a recent fuel price hike on Tuesday.
"The meeting would have been held on Monday night, but the government side was not fully represented," Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) deputy president Joseph Akinlaja told AFP.
Akinjala added that "labour will not allow itself to be deceived this time around in suspending the strike due to start on Wednesday only for government to back down on its demands.
"We still don't want to pre-empt them. When we get to the river we shall know how to cross it," Akinlaja said.
Nigerian government spokesman Eric Teniola had said the meeting was called to resolve the fuel strike dispute.
"The meeting is being convened to avert the planned strike. We are very hopeful that officials of the Nigeria Labour Congress will attend the meeting. We are in constant touch with them," he said on Monday.
On May 28, Nigerian service stations raised prices from 41.7 naira per litre (around 30 cents) to between 50 and 55 naira.
The price is still low by world standards but it marks the latest in a series of steep increases in an oil-rich country whose impoverished citizens once regarded cheap, subsidised fuel as a birthright.
- AFP