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Railway workers in Nigeria under the aegis of Nigeria Union of Railway Workers (NUR) and the Senior Staff Association (SSA) of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) have started their three-day warning strike.
The strike by the railway workers started on Wednesday midnight and will persist until Saturday 20th November 2021 if no intervention by the federal government.
The strike has grounded train services in the country and thrown passengers who have already acclimatized to the service in disarray. The routes affected by the strike are: Abuja Kaduna Train Service (AKTS), Warri Itakpe Train Service (WITS) and Lagos Ibadan Train Service (LITS).
The railway workers are demanding better salaries, improved welfare and standard condition of service. They have warned that they may be forced to embark on a protracted strike after the three day strike if there are no answers to their demands.
A meeting by the workers with the Minister of Transportation, Rt. Hon. Rotimi Amaechi to address the demand ended in a deadlock last weekend.
Efforts to reach the spokesperson for the Federal Ministry of Transportation, Eric Ojekwe, and the spokesperson for NRC, Yakub Mahmood proved abortive at the time of filing this report.
However, an NRC official confirmed to TNG that indeed the strike had commenced, stressing that there was no way they would have backed out when their demands had not been met.
“We are not working today. The strike has started. It will stay so until Saturday. But on Sunday, we will resume normal train services.
“However, after resuming on Sunday, we will await further instructions from our union leaders. I know we will embark on another strike if we don’t get a response from the government.
“That strike will not be three days like this one. But we are hoping that before Saturday, the government will intervene for us to call off the strike,” the NRC official told the media.
About 11,000 railway workers of the NRC spread across the country are partaking in the three-day warning strike.
The strike activities, according to a joint statement issued by NUR and SSA NRC branch, include “fervent intercessory prayers” for success of the strike.
The statement reads in part: “That the strike activities, which must include fervent intercessory prayers for the success of the struggles, should be within the premises of the Corporation and must be essentially orderly, well-organized, and devoid of any destruction or violation of railway assets, our assets;
“That all the workers must comply and stay out of their offices but gather together behind their district union leaders to participate actively, peacefully, and consistently in the whole days of the strike without any fear or let;
“That this planned strike action is just to send a warning signal to the right quarters to heed our demands for improved welfare and standard condition of service and may be followed with a protracted strike action plan;
“That the district leadership of the unions should always await further directives from Lagos from time to time as may be deemed expedient by the national officers of the unions;
“That every district must comply with this notice as any act prejudicial to this notice will be viewed very seriously and strictly by the leadership of the unions”.
Meanwhile, the NRC had earlier in a memo signed by its Managing Director/CEO, Engr. F. E. Okhiria pleaded with security agencies to help protect railway assets across the country.
