DELSU: SSANU, NASU Join Two Weeks Nationwide Warning Strike

By Daniel Dafe

The non-teaching staff of Delta State University (DELSU), Abraka, on Tuesday commenced a two-week warning strike in line with the directive of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Education and Associated Institutions (NASU) that began a nationwide strike on Monday.

This decision was reached during a congress of SSANU and NASU in DELSU on Tuesday.

Speaking to journalists after the said Congress, Chairman, SSANU-DELSU, Comrade Izu Monday, who also is the Chairman of the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of SSANU and NASU in DELSU and also the Secretary of SSANU, South South zone, said that the Congress considered the directives of the National body that had declared a warning strike, adding that they found reasons to carry out the directives of the National Executive Council (NEC) of SSANU and NASU.

He said: “The Congress agrees with the national that our 2009 agreement with the Federal Government is overdue for a review and that the government is not showing sufficient commitment is a call for concern. The Congress has decided to join our counterparts nationwide to draw the attention of the Federal government to this situation.”

According to him, the warning strike started since on Monday, but they decided to join on Tuesday.

Asked if there are internal issues in DELSU apart from the issues at the national body that influenced their decision to join the strike, he said: “The issues at the local level are already being sufficiently handled; particularly the issue of minimum wage arrears.”

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“Management and government have made specific pronouncements which Congress believes that management will implement as said. So to that extent for now, we don’t have any local or internal problem that would have warranted a strike,” he said.

Forthcoming DELSU Convocation
His words: “Our warning strike would have ended before the convocation. We are happy that the warning strike would have elapsed before the congregation.”

To union members, he urged them “to always remember that the executive of SSANU and NASU are running a cause for their own welfare; they should key in and take instructions from their leaders from time to time in the management of this warning strike.”

Speaking further, he said that apart from the 2009 agreement between the FG, SSANU and NASU, there are also issues of non-payment of Minimum Wage Arrears.

“Government has promised again and again and the value of the money has been eroded by inflation and yet the government will not make payment. So it’s also a problem. The issue of earned allowances that government is not implementing for our federal counterparts is also a problem. Earned allowances such as responsibility allowance, hazard allowance, excess work load allowance etc that the Federal Government is not implementing is also an issue in this warning strike.”

He called on the federal government to be sensitive to the welfare of workers, adding that government officials must learn to hold onto their agreement when reached.

“They should stop breaching agreements that they voluntarily entered into. It is not an act of civilization,” he opined.