 Following the series of ultimatums issued by the NUR, ASU and Nupeng to the government threatening nationwide strike by the unions, if some legitimate welfare and membership-related issues are not conclusively addressed, an economist has warned the government not to allow the strikes to commence as it will cripple the economy, Jacinta Obuco has more. It was first the Nigerian Union of Railway Workers, an affiliate of the Nigeria Labor Congress. The president of the union, InnoCenter GG, while on a breakfast show lamented that the take-home salary of the railway workers on level 46 is 26,000 Naira. He said they have been surviving on the general minimum wage of 30,000 Naira as the last time there was a salary review for the union was in 1983. We have the workers there and we are willing to do the work, but when you don't provide the materials for us to do the work, what magic do we perform? So in fairness to the administration of President Mohammedu Buhari, we are very satisfied with the infrastructural development that is going on in our cooperation right now. And that makes every Nigerian to believe that since railway is passing through a turnaround like this, in fact, the life of the workers is even better. So but the case is not like that. Also the academic-style union of universities as so has given the federal and the state governments a three-week automaton and then the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, Nupeng, a two-week automaton. All are pressing the government over the non-implementation of agreements entered with the unions. This got an economist, Gospu Obele, calling on the government to do the needful to avoid the strike. It's quite specific that the strike conversation ends on key areas of the sector of the Nigerian economy, speaking to education, infrastructure and oil and gas that is where it's at. So it will affect the economy, business activities will slow down. In some cases, even in front of some form of artificial scarcity, avoiding the strike action will be the best bet. His stress that the reason for the continuous strike is because the government does not take the welfare of workers seriously. What is expected to a larger extent is for government to be more proactive in its political way, first of all, and political commitment is high time for the government to sit up on honoring social contracts, which ends on the welfare and functioning of the people in the society. Until that is done, we will keep going to the cycle of strike actions and strikes to go on strike. The thrust here is that the strikes can be avoided if the government commits to their part of the agreement reached. Jacinta Ubuku, for PLOS TV Africa.