SSANU, NASU threatens to continue strike

At the University of Lagos (UNILAG), members of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities and other Allied Institutions (NASU) have protested the national leadership of their unions' decision to call off the workers' strike.

The NASU and SSANU branch chairmen as well as other executive committee members were brutally ejected by the demonstrators, who also booed the union leaders during a congress on campus on Wednesday.

They pledged to continue the strike and said they were not involved in the decision to end it without paying the five months' worth of salaries that had been withheld throughout the industrial action.

They claimed that the government had bought off the union leaders.

However, Abdulssobur Salaam, the National Vice-President of SSANU, who spoke to the irate throng at the institution, said that the problems have been resolved and that normalcy has now returned.

The employees frequently interrupted Mr. Salaam and other union leaders who were speaking to them on Wednesday, according to footage obtained by PREMIUM TIMES.

They asserted that the workers, who they said took the choice for the industrial action, were not consulted in JAC's decision to halt the strike.

While some of the workers carried signs with the slogan "No work, No pay," others chanted loudly.

Additionally, according to reports, they stoned and pelted several of the leaders, causing them to flee further abuse and humiliation.

However, Mr. Salam claimed that after workers were informed of the reasons why the leadership of both unions chose to put the strike on hold for two months, normalcy returned.

Such complaints, according to him, are common among union members.

He continued by saying that some union members do not know why the strike was put on hold for two months.

He said that JAC had reached a compromise with Minister of Education Adamu Adamu over the unions' demands and had therefore agreed to call off the strike.

He pointed out that the union's national body cannot abruptly reverse its decision to halt the strike.

“Some of the decisions that led to the suspension of strike for two months were not known to them and after giving them the explanations, they calmed down. At the end of the day, people acknowledged that things needed to be done. So, there is no problem at all.” he said.

He claimed that JAC and the government had a "good understanding" over most of their requests.

The union wants to renegotiate the 2009 contract, pay earned allowances, raise the minimum wage, bring back university staff schools under the university, stop academic staff from taking over non-academic positions, and implement the University Peculiar and Personnel Payment System (U3PS) in place of the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS), among other things, he said.

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