SSANU: University Workers Set To Resume Strike

Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities (SSANU) has threatened to resume strike over failure of the Nigerian government to honour the agreement earlier reached with the union in September.

A meeting of the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of the three non- teaching staff in the universities comprising SSANU, non Academic Staff Union (NASU) and NAAT has been fixed for next Tuesday to fix a day to commence the action

SSANU National President and Chairman of JAC, Comrade Samson Chijioke Ugwoke, stated this yesterday while speaking at the 32nd National Executive Council (NEC), meeting at University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

Ugwoke said that the Union is not intimidated by the plan by the federal government to implement the no work, no pay policy, stressing that “it will be morally and legally wrong if the government should go contrary to the agreement it entered into with the association and expect SSANU not to react”.

He also condemned the continuous victimisation of some of its members by the authorities of University of Abuja and the alleged plan to hand over staff school of the University to the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), State Universal Basic Education Board (UBEB).

Ugwoke lamented that that the federal government has failed to implement all the agreements it entered into with the union before the industrial dispute declared by it was called off.

He said: “We had issues like earned allowances, short falls in salary, staff schools matter, non- implementation of the judgment of the National Industrial Court which we got against the federal government to recall all teachers back to their offices etc, we had an MoU with the federal government in January after a one week warning strike.

“From January to September, the federal government did not do anything as regards the MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) signed in January and that necessitated our second strike which was indefinite.

“We entered into an MoU on salary shortfalls, a development that has never happened before in the university system where staff are paid fractional salaries.

“We objected to that and the federal government promised the money. Information reaching me shows that up till now, not all the universities have received the shortfall.”