SSANU, NASU End 7 Days Warning Strike, Resume Today

SSANU, NASU, and NAAT to end strike; demands include withheld salaries and renegotiation of agreements
Strikes prompted by withheld salaries from 2022; ‘No Work, No Pay’ policy enforced by former President Buhari
Unions seek payment of withheld salaries and agreement renegotiation; meeting with Federal Government ends inconclusively

EKO HOT BLOG reports that the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational Associated Institutions (NASU) are set to resume work today (Monday) following a seven-day warning strike they initiated last week.

In solidarity, their sister union, the National Association of Academic Technologists of the University, also undertook a three-day strike during the same period.

EDITOR’S PICKS

The primary grievance prompting these strikes is the withheld salaries resulting from a protracted strike they embarked upon in 2022.

The administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari implemented the policy of ‘No Work, No Pay’, resulting in the withholding of their salaries.

However, President Bola Tinubu recently ordered the payment of the withheld salaries of members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, who had also embarked on a strike in 2022.

As a result, NASU, SSANU and NAAT called on the government to pay them too, threatening to embark on a strike.

Amid the strike last week, the striking unions met with the Federal Government but the meeting ended in a deadlock.

Giving an update on the issue during a Zoom meetng on Sunday, the National President, Joint Action Committee of SSANU, NASU, Mr Mohammed Ibrahim, said: “The strike ends tonight, (Sunday), everyone is resuming to work on Monday, and the government has till now not acceded to our demands. No payment has been made. The government is not responding to us.”

He added that the National Executive Council of the unions would meet and discuss during the week to know the next line of action.”

Ibrahim emphasised that aside agitation for the payment of their withheld salaries, there was the need for the Federal Government to consider the renegotiation of 2009 FGN/NASU and SSANU agreements and payment of N50bn earned allowances.

Also speaking, National President, NAATS, Mr Ibeji Nwokoma, revealed that the union went on strike between March and August 2022, stating that the Federal Government, through the Minister of Education, announced publicly at a stakeholders’ meeting that all staff of the university should be paid, saying they were surprised that the non-teaching staff were exempted.

“We all went on a legitimate strike action; I want to believe something went wrong or somebody is trying to cheat us,” he said.

Also speaking, the Vice-President of SSANU, Dr Salaam Abdussobur, said, “We are not a strike-happy union. The reality is the fact that generally, the FG is treating the university staff with contempt. The government is not holistic in the way it treats the university workers, and the SSANU/NASU is treated lower in the cadre. For instance, Federal Government universities do not have Governing Councils, the government is turning the Vice-Chancellors into dictators.”

Click to watch our video of the week