Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, threatens to shut down airports across the country

Except state governments owing workers across the
country pay up, air travels in the country may
witness a major setback, as the leadership of the
Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, yesterday, threatened
to shut down airports across the country if
governors owing civil servants salaries do not pay
the salaries immediately.
This was stated in Jos by the National Vice-
President of the NLC, Mrs. Lucy Offiong, while
leading a protest of the Plateau State chapter of
the union over non-payment of salaries of
members by the state government.
According to her, labour decided on that line of
action so as to compel governors to pay workers’
salaries.
Continuing, she said shutting down the airports
would deprive the governors the luxury of
travelling by air while their workers suffered.
Offiong said: “Governors who are among the
most frequent users of airports may need to be
deprived of the facilities so that they would be
moved to give their workers their monthly wage.”
The Chairman of Plateau State NLC, Mr. Jibrin
Bancir, said the union decided to take its protest
to the state House of Assembly because it
believes that the lawmakers who passed the
budget with provision for workers’ salaries should
be able to compel the state government to pay it.
“I don’t know what the House of Assembly
members are doing to provide relief to civil
servants whose children are out of school and
who cannot afford to feed their families. So, we
are here to let the House know what workers are
going through and to ask the House to prevail
upon the governor to fulfill his obligations to the
workers, including the payment of their salaries
and other outstanding entitlements,” Bancir said.