Joe Ajaero, the president of the Nigeria Labour Congress, has ordered all public sector employees in the nation to go on strike starting on Wednesday of next week.
Additionally, he gave the order for all affiliated unions making up the Nigeria Labour Congress to be prepared for nationwide picketing operations at all CBN branches.
The instruction came after a previous ultimatum given by NLC Central Working Committee members last week in which they criticized the Federal Government's cash swap program.
According to Ajaero, the Federal Government and the CBN have not demonstrated any willingness to fix the situation, therefore the decision to picket CBN facilities became imperative.
Notwithstanding the Supreme Court's judgment permitting the old N500 and N1000 notes to circulate alongside the new notes until December 31 of this year, he bemoaned that things seem to be getting worse as workers cannot access cash to pay for transportation to work or to purchase food for their families.
The top labor organization, NLC, addressed reporters on Wednesday at its headquarters and criticized the petroleum industry's pricing inconsistencies, which were also cause for concern.
We offered the government an ultimatum last week to assess the country's financial constraint, but we have learned to our dismay that little has been done to improve the situation, and the administration is still dragging its feet on the issues we raised.
"In light of this, we reconvened this morning to discuss our stance and decided that by the following Wednesday, all CBN branches will be picketed.
When pushed to the limit, Ajaero said, "We have chosen to take our future in our hands, and we have mobilized our staff for this exercise. Workers are told to stay at home too because people cannot eat, workers can no longer go to the office."