We’re ready to join NLC in solidarity with ASUU, say textile workers

NUEE threatens shutdown if the crisis persists

National Union of Textile Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria (NUTGTWN) will join the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to mobilise for a solidarity industrial action if the Federal Government fails to address the crisis between it and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

Officials of NUTGTWN condemned the government’s “no work no pay” policy on the striking dons when the basis for the strike has not been addressed.

In a statement by the President, John Adaji, to felicitate Muslims on the occasion of Eid el-Kabir, NUTGTWN called on the Federal Government to urgently address the lingering crisis in the education sector.

He said: “We note that despite the efforts of NLC and trade unions in Nigeria’s university system to resolve this crisis, including convening high-powered stakeholders’ meetings, the government has remained recalcitrant and insensitive to the plight of the lecturers and the students by refusing to give the matter the seriousness it deserves. Even more worrisome and provocative is the recent declaration of ‘no work no pay policy by the Federal Government, resulting in the stoppage of the salaries of the striking university workers.”

Adaji explained that as an affiliate of NLC, “we hereby commend the untiring effort and solidarity of NLC led by Ayuba Wabba and other concerned citizens of the country with a view to resolving the lingering crisis in the education sector.”

ALSO, the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) has threatened to shut down operations, if the current impasse between ASUU and the government is not conclusively addressed.

NUEE General Secretary, Joe Ajaero, stated, yesterday, that the union would be forced to stay at home with their children if an agreement is not reached by the parties.

He said the union was deeply saddened and appalled by the impasse between the Federal Government and unions in the tertiary academic sector (universities, polytechnics, colleges of education and research institutes), which had avoidably lingered.

According to him, the deadlock, which has lasted for months, leaving the students at home, is undoubtedly exposing the students to negative vices inimical to nation-building.

NUEE called on the Federal Government to address all issues concerning the non-implementation of agreements and others affecting the country’s tertiary institutions.

A nation committed to human capital development does not toy with the education, training and manpower needs of its youth population, Ajaero noted.

“The laissez-faire attitude of the government, whether in the states or federal, towards a continued closure of schools, is a sorry state in the process of our development towards nationhood.

“It is through education that Nigeria could be pulled out of the doldrums and be positioned towards socio-economic and technological development of the next millennium,” he said.