As Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, SSANU, and Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities and Associated Institutions, NASU, plan to embark on mother of all strike, Senator Chris Ngige, Minister of Labour and Employment, plans to meet with the unions’ leadership to avoid the planned strike.
The two non-teaching staff unions in the universities, under the umbrella of Joint Action Committee, JAC, have threatened to embark on what they called mother of all strike, if the Federal Government failed to address their demands.
Already, Chairman of JAC and President of SSANU, Comrade Samson Ugwoke, told Vanguard that JAC might likely meet this week to appraise the situation and take a decision on next line of action.
Recall that the two unions had penultimate week proceeded on a five-day warning strike over the inability of the Federal Government to implement the 2016 Industrial Court judgment that ordered the reinstatement of the sacked teachers of Staff Schools by the government, the discrepancy in disbursement of Earned Allowances where the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, allegedly took over 80 percent, leaving 20 percent for the three non-teaching unions and the re-negotiation of the 2009 Agreement.
Speaking exclusively to Vanguard on the the next line of action after the warning strike, Comrade Peters Adeyemi, the General Secretary of NASU, said that the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Ngige, had scheduled to meet with the unions to resolve the problem.
He said: “The new Minister of Labour, Dr. Chris Ngige has been talking to us, he has been in touch with the JAC. Even before we ended the warning strike, the Minister has been in touch with us.
“There is an agreement that the government and the union will meet very shortly, we can share with you the outcome of the meeting.”
Asked when the meeting will take place, he said, “We want to have a mutual agreement. So, we are actually consulting on the place because the Minister did not want to impose a place on us, it will be very soon.
“That shows you that as the new Minister is assuming work, he is actually trying to resolve the matter.”
Meanwhile, the Chairman of JAC, Comrade Ugwoke said that members were getting agitated over the delay of government to address all the necessary concerns raised and that there could be a meeting before the end of the week to appraise the situation.
He said: “Our members are mounting pressure on us, I may call JAC towards the end of the week- that is on Friday, so that we can meet and appraise the strike and draw out our plan of action.”
