Varsity workers begin strike Wednesday

Administrative activities in university campuses may be grounded from tomorrow as their non-teaching staff begin another round of strike.

The non-academic workers want the Federal Government to pay their four-month withheld salary arrears and resume the payment of the N35,000 wage award announced in October last year by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for industrial harmony to reign in the universities.

Their umbrella body — the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) — resolved to embark on the strike during their 48th regular National Executive Council meeting in Benin, Edo State on June 27 – 28.

The Joint Action Committee (JAC) of the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) and SSANU had on June 20, 2024, sent a letter to Education Minister, Prof Tahir Mamman, informing him that their members would begin a work boycott in two weeks if their demands were not met.

That ultimatum will end tomorrow.

In the letter signed by NASU General Secretary, Prince Peters Adeyemi and SSANU President, Comrade Mohammed Ibrahim, the two unions had accused the government of “neglect and insincerity.”

But speaking through a communiqué by its President Ibrahim, SSANU accused the government of partiality and dribbling its leadership on a 2009 agreement it signed with the university union.

Calling for the constitution of a new committee to further action on the implementation of the pact, SSANU said it was dismayed that after all promises by Prof Mamman, Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Nkiruka Onyejeocha, and House of Representatives that the arrears would be paid, the government has continued to play games even after it suspended ‘’a one- week warning strike in March this year.”

The communiqué reads:“NEC in session once again expresses utmost dismay at the unprecedented level of government’s insensitivity and deliberate resolve to cause chaos in the university system by adopting the divide and rule policy to set unions on a collision course through preferential treatment of one union over others.

‘’Recall SSANU and other unions were compelled by the government to embark on strike in 2022 over the government’s refusal to honour a collective bargaining agreement willingly signed by all parties. At the end of the strike, the then Muhammadu Buhari Government further signed an elaborate agreement among which was the non-victimisation clause.

“However, the government made a selective payment of the withheld salaries. While we do not begrudge the payment made to our colleagues, we expected the same gesture to be extended to SSANU and NASU which legally complied with all procedures before embarking on the industrial action.

‘’Despite all promises and media hypes by the Ministers of Education and Labour, including the House of Representatives to pay these arrears, the government has continued to dribble SSANU, even after the mutual agreement to suspend the one-week warning strike in March this year.

“NEC in session deliberated on the matter and unanimously approved a long-drawn comprehensive industrial action after concurrence with the Joint Action Committee meeting of SSANU and NASU scheduled for Thursday, 4th July 2024, if the government fails to pay the four months salary arrears.”