Workers of the Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO) under the auspices of the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Allied and Education Institutions NASU) have announced the suspension of the unions’ strike actions for the next two months.
Briefing newsmen after the unions’ meeting on Wednesday at FUTO, chairman of the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of SSANU and NASU in the university, Comrade Uchenna Nwokeji, urged the unions members to resume work immediately.
He said, that the unions used the period of the strike action to achieve up to 80 percent of its demands from the Federal Government, adding that the remaining agreements would be completely achieved before the expiration of the two months deadline.
Nwokeji said, “The JAC National of SSANU and NASU are still battling to ensure that within this two months, everything will come to an end. The two months will allow the government to implement the agreements reached.
“Part of the agreement is the decision of the government to set aside the sum of N50 billion for the payment of earned academic allowance and earned allowance, the cogent decision on the University Peculiar Personnel Payroll System (UPPPS or U3PS), the release of the white paper on university visitation panel and funding of the state universities”.
Nwokeji, who doubles as the FUTO branch chairman of SSANU, reiterated that SSANU and NASU are not begging for peace as erroneously stated in some quarters.
He also added that SSANU and NASU never went on sympathy strike for ASUU.
“What we want is justice and equal treatment. SSANU and NASU never went on sympathy strike for ASUU
“We are only demanding the welfare of our members and most of those things we are demanding are being caused by ASUU.
“Already the federal government has tried to settle some of the issues and we believe that with continued negotiations, all the agreements will be fulfilled by the federal government”, Nwokeji said.
The JAC chairman used the opportunity to call on Vice Chancellors of various universities to stop giving the of work non-teaching staff to ASUU members.
“A lot of our members have doctorate degrees. That we chose not to lecture should not make the VCs to take our jobs and give to lecturers”, he said.
He urged the FUTO workers to work hard to continue developing themselves in the areas of their specialisation so that they will be able to defend their positions at any given time
“Every member of NASU and SSANU should get to work immediately”.
