Non-academic union threaten showdown with FG over demands

The striking non-academic staff of the nation’s universities yesterday vowed not to suspend their nationwide industrial action until the Federal Government acceded to their demands.

They also warned the management of various institutions affected by the strike to desist from using interns, industrial trainee students, ad-hoc and unpaid workers to do their jobs.

Members of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) and National Association of Academic Technicians (NAAT) University of Ibadan (UI) chapter had on November 28, 2017, shut the institution in protest of disparity in the sharing of their paid earned allowances.

Rising from a meeting at UI, they also threatened to resist any attempts by the government to break the strike.

Chairman, SSANU, UI chapter, Wale Akinremi, who addressed the workers, accused the government of disobeying court judgment on the legality of staff school.

He said the union was also aware of the various efforts being made by government to frustrate peaceful resolutions of issues that had been agreed on nine years ago.

Akinremi said: “A reasonable management will talk to show understanding. Today, it’s been nine years since we signed an agreement with the Federal Government.

“They are a component of that agreement and past and the present government have been doing everything possible to frustrate our efforts to peaceful resolutions of the issues.

“The government took us to court on the issue of staff school, unfortunately, they lost the case and the union won. And for the government to implement, it’s been over a year now, is this a democracy? Is this how to run a civilised country?”