KEY POINTS

• The National Labor Congress will organize a nation-wide demonstration on February 4 to protest against the increased telecom prices.
• Telecom costs have reached a critical threshold where workers face financial uncertainty according to the letter-writing civil service union.
• If the demanded telecom rate rollback is ignored the NLC will move ahead with escalating protests.

Native workers represented by the Nigeria Labour Congress have declared countrywide demonstrations to oppose proposed telecom price rises of 50 percent.

The NLC will conduct its protest demonstration on February 4 to force the government to cancel its hike in telecom rates because these higher prices threaten to make Nigerians worse off economically.

Members of the NLC’s National Administrative Council made their decision to oppose the telecoms price increase because they viewed phone services as vital and unacceptably costly during a recent meeting.

The workers’ organization rejected the hike because they viewed it as unacceptable interference with labor benefits.

Economic impact and government criticism

NLC President Joe Ajaero condemned the government’s decision to increase telecommunication tariffs since it refused to give workers the wage hikes they needed.

Telecom expenses would now cost 15 percent of minimum wage wages after the rate hike making phone service unreachably expensive for the workforce according to his assessment.

Union members have asked the government along with the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and legislators to take immediate steps toward reversing the rate hike while they initiate talks about adjusting it reasonably.

The NLC has warned it will increase its resistance by considering nationwide telecom service disruptions in case their demands remain unfulfilled.