The president of theSenior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), Comrade Samson Ugwoke, has insisted that the non-teaching staff in the universities across the country must go on a nationwide strike as declared by the three unions within the system ' SSANU; the Non-Academic Staff of Universities (NASU) and the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) ' because of the crucial nature of the issues involved and the government insensitivity to the plight of the workers and the system in general.Specifically, Comrade Ugwoke said it was inconceivable to note that 90 per cent of the agreements reached by the Federal Government with the respective unions since November 5, 2009 had not the implemented, when the agreement in itself is due for review.Based on the letter of the signed agreements, the document is to be subjected to review every three years, but the SSANU president said the Federal Government had even failed to implement 90 per cent of the agreement not to talk of reviewing it.'It is an irony to inform you that the 2009 agreement is already due for re-negotiation but we are still battling and working on its implementation till now. They are forcing us to go on industrial action, a step we have not been willing to take for a long time.'90 per cent of the 2009 agreement has not been implemented and the agreement itself is due for review. We give them up to the end of this month and if nothing is done, there will be a serious strike action across the universities in the country.'Comrade Ugwoke said the issue has become compounded with the new national minimum wage which also affects the varsity workers, adding that the agreement in question had also taken into cognizance such national increment and made provision for it.The unions have already declared a nationwide seven day warning strike from 3rd to 9th October, 2011. They demanded that the recently amended Universities (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 11 of 1993 be signed into law, with the incorporation of the 65 years retirement age for non- teaching staff and other contending issues.According to the union, the seven days warning strike will be a prelude to a total and indefinite full-blown strike in the universities across the country.'We have, as law abiding unions, written to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation copying the National Assembly and other key agencies of government that should the bill remain unsigned by 30th September, 2011, and other contending issues raised remain unattended to, members of the three unions, NAAT, NASU and SSANU shall commence a nationwide seven days warning strike from 3rd to 9th October, 2011 as a prelude to a total and indefinite full blown industrial strike,' the unions declared at the weekend.Comrade Ugwoke stated that the Federal Government must respect and implement the content of the agreements it willingly entered into with the unions.On the new minimum wage, the SSANU President said: 'As we talk to you, a new dimension has crept into the grievances. The various unions' agreement have a provision in the agreements that whenever there is a general increase in public sectors salaries and allowances, the remuneration of non-academic staff shall be correspondingly increased.'The national minimum wage approved for Nigerian workers commenced in August 2011. Expectedly, the unions should have by now been invited for necessary briefing. Neither the Federal Ministry of Education nor the National Universities Commission has spoken on this. It is only in doing this that the relative peace in the universities can be sustained.
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