‘We’ll decide next action’: SSANU, NASU end strike

The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational Associated Institutions (NASU) have announced the end of their seven-day warning strike over withheld salaries.

SSANU and NASU commenced a seven-day warning strike on Monday, March 18, 2024, over the non-payment of four months withheld salaries.

The National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) also joined the industrial action and began its three-day warning strike on Wednesday, March 20.

The unions had for about a month called the attention of the Federal Government to its exclusion from the payment of the withheld salaries, which it commenced payment for the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in February.

Their salaries were withheld when the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari invoked a ‘No Work, No Pay policy’ against ASUU, SSANU, NAATS who embarked on a strike that lasted eight months, four months, and five-and-half months, respectively, in 2022.

President Bola Tinubu, in October 2023, directed that the university workers be paid four months.

Strike: FG meets SSANU, NASU, NAAT leaders

ASUU members were later paid their own withheld four months’ salaries.

However, the National President of the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of SSANU and NASU, Mohammed Ibrahim, in a Zoom meeting with journalists on Sunday, said all the unions would resume on Monday.

“The seven-day warning strike shall end at midnight of Sunday, March 24, 2024, and normal work will resume on Monday, March 25, 2024,” Ibrahim, who lamented that the government had yet to respond to the unions’ demands, said.

Ibrahim noted that the government had not paid the non-teaching staff, adding that it would meet with the National Executive Council (NEC) to decide the next line of action.

The Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, met with the unions’ leaders in Abuja on Wednesday, March 20, to discuss ending their warning strike.

Mamman told newsmen after the meeting that the Federal Government would continue to dialogue with the unions to ensure that things do not escalate beyond the warning strike.

The Star