The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), has said the negotiation and implementation of a new national minimum wage is a collective struggle for all and not just organised labour.
NLC President, Mr Joe Ajaero, said this at the “international Lenin Centenary” Conference on Monday in Abuja.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN,) reports that Leninism emerged in a tumultuous period of history, marked by the Russian Revolution of 1917.
It sought to provide a framework for the establishment of a socialist state that emphasis on the class struggle and the need for a revolutionary vanguard to address the concerns of the working class remains relevant.
Ajaero therefore said that the only chance of escaping oppression and exploitation was building a collective power in unity.
He said this would further help in building a strong resistance to alleged forces fighting to deny every opportunity of changing the society.
According to him, it is important that at this juncture that I invite all of us as we prepare to negotiate the national minimum wage this year not to see it as a struggle for the NLC and TUC but a collective struggle.
“I request that we all join hands together from the beginning of the negotiation to the end of it and to its ultimate implementation.
“This is so that we can overcome those who have already made up their minds to pay Nigerians a starvation wage.
“We seek for a Living Wage and it is only when we work together as comrades that we can achieve this.
“Comrades remember, when we stand alone, our chances are slim but when we stand together, we are able to achieve our collective interests,” he said.
The NLC president, however, said there was the need to collectively restrategise politically to avoid the mistakes made since 1999.
He said there was the need to deepen vigilance inorder to understand the nexus between workplace complexities and diverse manifestations of class exploitations and subjugation in the wider society.