National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) has said that its members who are mainly commercial drivers will not be participating in the organised Labour planned strike, stating that the plan was “ill-timed and in bad faith”.

The leader of the union, Alhaji Tajudeen Badiru Agbede stated the union’s position after an emergency meeting with all the state chairmen, secretaries and treasurers in Abuja.

He said his members after reviewing the situation, decided to back out of the proposed NLC strike the timing of the planned strike “is not in tandem with the current economic reality”.

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“Our members are going through a lot of hardship, so participating in any strike will create more harm for our members.

“We felt the strike will not serve any purpose to our members who are mostly commercial drivers who are operating in an informal sector of the economy. We are not salary earners. Ours is work and eat. Our members depend mainly on what they make from their daily operations. So, to embark on any strike action will have serious negative impacts on our members’ daily earnings

“Again, there are some members who purchase their vehicles through hire purchase options, and these category of people are mandated to make repayment either on daily or weekly basis, so any strike action will affect the repayment agreement and the company or dealer or banks that gave out vehicles will not take any excuse,” he added.

Agbede appealed to NLC to give the government enough time to work out modalities on the best way out, stating that going on strike now will only compound the problems.

He urged commercial drivers to disregard the planned industrial strike by going about their daily operations and to report anybody who tries to force them to join the strike to law enforcement agencies. (Tribune)

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