Why Strikes Persist – NASU, Others

Non-teaching workers in public universities have explained why there have been persistent strikes in the country.

As reported by The Nation, they blamed the Federal Government for not implementing the agreements it signed with unions for the persistent strikes.

The non-teaching workers comprise the Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities and Associated Institutions (NASU) and Senior Staff Association of Universities’ Teaching Hospitals Research Institutes and Associated Institutions (SSAUTHRIAI).

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NASU General Secretary Peters Adeyemi, who decried non-implementation of Federal Government’s agreements with unions in research institutions 10 years ago, blamed government officials for signing pacts to ending strikes without the intension of fulfilling the terms contained in those agreements.

“We have had to contend with the problem of government and employers of labour in our country with government abdicating their responsibility and refusing to honour signed agreements,” he said.

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Adeyemi said: “It is becoming problematic because every day, government signs Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and Memorandum of Agreements (MoAs). It seems, to a large extent, that such actions are nothing but a fire brigade approach on the part of the Federal Government to get striking workers back to work. They sign these MoUs and MoAs when they know they are not going to do anything to address the grievances of unions.

“I am not sure the Federal Government even knows the number of MoUs and MoAs they have signed in recent time.”

SSAUTHRIAI President Akintola Benjamin decried what he called the lackadaisical attitude of the government about the agreements it signed with unions.

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The union leader said the issues in contention with the government include withdrawal of circular on non-skipping of salary Grade Level 10.

He noted that though the unions in the research sub-sector secured a judgment for the implementation of the non-skipping, the Federal Government had not implemented the policy service-wide but chose to implement it in a few ministries.

Benjamin said, “We are saying the judgment should be implemented service-wide so that it will cut across the entire 14 ministries where research institutes are.”