Nigeria unions shut down power grid, disrupt airlines with strike over minimum wage

 Nigeria's main labor unions shut down the national grid and disrupted airline operations across the country on Monday (June 3).

This was the start of an indefinite strike over the government's failure to agree a new minimum wage.

In Lagos, artist Daniel Levi said he was booked onto an 11 a.m. flight to the capital Abuja.

"And it’s looking like there’s no hope because it’s almost 12 and the workers that were inside were chased to be outside right now so all hope is lost and I have to go back and hope we can move tomorrow."

This is the fourth strike by the Nigerian Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress, two of Nigeria's biggest unions, since President Bola Tinubu took office last year.

State-owned utility the Transmission Company of Nigeria said union members drove away operators at the country's power control rooms and shut down at least six substations.

That eventually shut down the national grid in the early hours of the morning.

Two airlines said the strike had grounded flights.

Emmanuel Jaja is deputy president of the Air Transport Service Senior Staff Association of Nigeria.

"Now we are inflicting hardship on Nigerians, which is not the normal thing, so if it is a government that is thinking about their citizens I think they should rethink and we go back to the table."

Since taking office, Tinubu has embarked on a series of bold economic reforms.

That's fueled a rise in inflation to an almost 30-year high and worsened a cost of living crisis.

Unions declared the indefinite strike on Friday (May 31) after the collapse of talks for a new minimum wage - meant to cushion the impact of reforms.

The unions said the strike would last until a new minimum wage was put in place.

https://finance.yahoo.com/video/nigeria-strike-shuts-power-grid-161424988.html