By Daniel Tyokua
The Federal Capital Territory chapters of the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) have resumed an indefinite strike across the six Area Councils over non implementation of the new 70,000 national minimum wage.
Workers in the six Area Councils had embarked on strike over non implementation of the minimum wage in November 2024, but suspended the action in December 2024 due to intervention of the Minister of FCT, Nyesom Wike.
Recall that President Bola Tinubu signed the new Minimum Wage Bill into law in May 2024, approving N70,000 as minimum wage for workers following months of negotiation with officials of the organised labour.
In a joint press statement issued on Thursday by the president NULGE, Abdullahi Kabi and Abdullahi Shafa the chairman of NUT-FCT, directed its members to resume the suspended strike action indefinitely.
The statement said the unions are protesting the non-implementation of the new national minimum wage of ₦70,000 for workers in the area councils and primary schools, despite its implementation for all other workers in the FCT.
According to them, as representatives of the people, they believe in what they see on the ground, despite meeting with the Council’s Chairmen, there has been no positive change in the workers’ salaries.
Kabi FCT President of NULGE added that their agreement with the Council’s Chairmen ended in December last year, and they expect the implementation of the new minimum wage by January this year.
The joint union of NUT and NULGE expressed sadness that the Area Councils Chairmen failed to implement the new minimum wage by January, as agreed upon.
The statement reads, “we have resume our strike, we want our demands to be met before suspending it”.
