NIGERIA HOSPITALS BEGIN NATIONWIDE INDEFINITE STRIKE ON TUESDAY

However, the unions on the 9th day of the strike struck a deal with government, which the leadership said six months after the deal was struck, the government is yet to meet any of its demands, adding that in March, the union further gave the government a 30 days ultimatum.

“Before now we gave the government 21 working days as an ultimatum. Last month, we also threatened to go on strike after 30 working days which will expire tomorrow (Tuesday) and government have not really done anything tangible’, he noted.

“They only invited us on the 5th of April told us that our issues are being looked into as usual without any concrete effort on how they are planning to meet our demand. So our National Executive Council (NEC) met in Abuja and appraised the situation and we resolved to continue with the strike, no going back”, the union leader said.

The national Vice Chairman of the unions said the agreement the union had with the government on September 30, 2017 was that their demands would be met in five weeks, but argued that,’ five weeks has metamorphosed to six months and still counting,”.

“We know this strike will affect the masses and we are compassionate about the person; that was why we gave enough time for the government to do the needful. But the only thing government seems to respect is strike’.

“The labor law gives us that opportunity that if our employer is not showing interest in our matter, we can withdraw our services through strike and we had followed all the due processes before arriving to this decision.”

‘Calls and text messages sent to the phones of both the health minister and ministry’s spokesperson, Boade Akinola, for a response to the decision of the unions were not returned as at press time’ Chimela added.