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.”