The Nation Newspaper

Tag: NASU

  • NASU plans strike

    NASU plans strike

    Non academic employees in the universities are warming up for industrial action as a fall out of the resolution of the ASUU strike.

    They took the decision during the delegates conference in Owerri under the banner of the Non Academic Staff Union ((NASU). The communique was signed by Deputy President/Chairman of the Universities Trade Group, Comrade Sunday Adeyemi and the Deputy General Secretary, Comrade F.J Ajayi.

    The union said it would go on strike the moment a negative action is directed at its members outside the original agreement reached in the 2009 Federal Government NASU agreement.

    NASU also expressed worry that its 2009 agreement with the Federal Government was due for review since June, 2012, noting that the non-implementation of the full content of the FG/University based Union 2009 agreement is a political strategy aimed at mitigating early review of the agreement.

    The Union urged President Goodluck Jonathan to put necessary machinery in motion to commence the upward review of the agreement within the next three months.

    The Council in session also warned the Federal Government not to create more crisis it cannot manage in the process of resolving the ASUU strike, adding that some of its members, including NAAT and SSANU who were formerly members of the Interim Monitoring Committee set up by the Federal Government in October 23, 2013 to confirm the initial payment made to the Universities by the Federal Government, have been excluded.

    The Union also sympathised with the family of the late Professor Festus Iyayi who it noted had been in the struggle for a positive change in the nation’s education.

  • Breaking News: Fed Poly Oko down tools

    …Joint Action committee of Trade Unions condemns molestation of ASUP officials

    …says it operates in atmosphere of fear

    …demands removal of the two officers from Office
    Tension is high at Federal Polytechnic, Oko Wednesday as Joint Action Committee of Trade Unions (JACTU) grounded all academic and non academic activities in the institution until further notice.
    This was following the recommendations of the Joint Action Committee of Trade Unions (JACTU) to the Rector of the Institution Prof Godwin Onu to remove his two aides, Mr Amobi Chiamogu and Stanley Okafor from office for assaulting the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, Oko chapter officials.
    JACTU  said  it hereby withdraws herself from further official engagements with management until the issues are resolved adding that it is now operating in an atmosphere of fear, dreadful in academic environment, this they said is unacceptable.
    Rising from an emergency meeting yesterday JACTU, condemned the attack on the officials of the union by people from the office of the Rector adding that the action smacks of high level of indiscipline and gangsterism.
    The resolution made available to  The Nation  was signed by Chairman of ASUP, Dr Onyeka Uwakwe , General Secretary ASUP , Lady Ogugua Ochuba , a lawyer ; Chairman of   NASU, Chief Ezenwankwo Ik and secretary ,Nwankwo Jeff as well as Chairman SSNAIP Okoye G.F and Secretary Nwafor Barnabas.
    JACTU wrote Rector Prof Onu and copied National President  of ASUP, General Secretary among others.
    It stated in part,’’ a meeting of the Joint Action  of Trade Unions (ASUP, NASU, SSANIP) took place on Tuesday , October 22, 2013 as a result of a report on assault and attack on ASUP by officers attached to your office—Mr Amobi Chiamogu and Barr Stanley Okafor , during ASUP emergency congress held on Monday, October 21, 2013.
    ‘’Mr Amobi Chiamogu began attack on ASUP officials and in the process destroying official documents of the union as well as inflicting body injuries to General- Secretary, Lady Barr Ogugua Ochuba . He later rained punches on one Kossy Ebunilo , an academic staff in the meeting. The legal Adviser ,Br Stanley Okafor lumbered into the meeting with a stick and eventually caused a commotion . Reports indicate that a yet to be confirmed accomplices aided the duo in the act of infamy. The meeting reviewed the situation and concludes the development is strange to an academic environment and public service rules.
    ‘’Regrettably, the two officers who assaulted and caused bodily injuries to an officer and members of ASUP are key officers attached to your office. How can such highly placed officers of Rectory Unit throw decorum to the winds? Indeed the actions are atrocious that JACTU is worried that these men were sponsored to engage in such heinous acts. Ironically, one of the officers , the legal adviser , Mr Stanley Okafor is not a member of ASUP. What then brought to a meeting of intellectuals?
    ‘’JACTU condemns the action of the duo in entirety and regrets that the actions are unprecedented in the institution. The actions smack of high level of indiscipline and gangsterism. The development is appalling, shocking and unacceptable. Other personal assistants and legal advisers have successfully operated in the institution without abusing powers or causing a breach a breach of peace.
    ‘’In view of the forgoing, management appears to weigh poorly on Labour relations measurement scale. Consequently, JACTU hereby withdraws herself from further official engagements with management until the issues are resolved.
    ‘’Regrettably, he victims of the duo are very senior officers of the Polytechnic. JACTU , therefore , demands immediate removal of these officers from office. The action is deplorable and JACTU demands that appropriate punitive sanctions be meted to these people. JACTU also demands unreserved public apology by both management and the concerned officers.
    JACTU ended thus, ‘’ Generally, in view of the unguarded utterances of threats to life by the duo , JACTU is compelled to believe that staff and unions now operate in an atmosphere of fear. That is dreadful enough in an academic environment and this is unacceptable’’.
  • Don’t implement Oronsaye’s report, NASU, others warn Fed Govt

    Don’t implement Oronsaye’s report, NASU, others warn Fed Govt

    The Federal Government has been warned against implementing the Oronsaye Committee’s report, which recommended reduction in the size of workforce to cut the cost of governance.

    The Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) at its National Executive Council (NEC) meeting in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital warned that the government would cause chaos in the public service if it implements the report.

    The Union, which also gave Federal Government until the end of this month to implement CONTISS 15 for staff of the polytechnics and colleges of education or face another strike, insisted that the report was unacceptable.

    President of the union, Comrade Ladi Iliya, said that prunning the workforce would further worsen the unemployment and insecurity in the country.

    “We do not believe that the objective of the Federal Government transformation agenda is to send workers into employment market,” she said.

    She said reducing government statutory agencies as proposed in the report will result to loss of jobs and throw more people into the already saturated market with its attendant economic and social upheavals.

    “Our position is that any cutting of cost reform that does not address public looting will amount to an exercise in futility, because the present high cost of governance will persist even if all the recommendations of the Oronsaye Committee’s Report are fully implemented,” she further said.

    She charged that the government in its White Paper must exercise caution and discretion in the choice of what to implement or not.

    Rather than cutting the workforce, the labour leader advised that the cost of governance would be reduced considerably if governments execute the war against corruption.

    “We decry the issue of corruption, which is now an acceptable part of every transaction in the country, whether in the public sectors of the economy. The high cost of running the country is a result of the endemic scourge of corrupt practices, which have long bedevilled the system,”she stressed.

  • NASU threatens strike over unpaid salaries

    The Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) has threatened to begin a nationwide strike next week, if its members’ August and September salaries are not paid at the end of this month.

    NASU’s General Secretary, Comrade Peters Adeyemi addressed reporters yesterday in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, at the beginning of the association’s National Executive Council (NEC) meeting.

    Adeyemi described strikes as antithetical to the socio-political and economic development of the country.

    The union leader said he would no longer allow his members to be used as the proverbial sacrificial lamb in a nation said to be flowing with milk and honey.

    He said: “We are the ones presently keeping the system running, especially at our universities. But I must tell you that our members have not been paid their August salaries. We are approaching the end of September. NASU will start its own strike next week because we have been working and the government has refused to pay our salary.

    “For us, it does not make sense to continue to keep the system running when we are not paid our salaries.

    “The reason for this is not known to us. Workers in all federal universities are not paid their salary right now. That’s a big challenge. The government has not paid our salary for August. As we are talking now (yesterday), they are owing us two months’ salaries. There’s no way we can continue to do this work on empty stomachs while they run around the globe with heavy stomachs.

    “We don’t want to ruin the future of our children. But if these salaries are not promptly paid by the end of this month, we may have no option than to embark on a strike. In fact it will form the kernel of our deliberations at this NEC.”

  • Varsity workers threaten strike over 2009 agreement

    Varsity workers threaten strike over 2009 agreement

    University workers under the aegis of National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT), Non-Academic Staff of Nigeria Universities (NASU) and the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities (SSNNU) may resume their strike following the non-implementation of the agreement they signed with the Federal Government in 2009.

    Unless the federal government invites the unions for a negotiation, they may join their counterparts in the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) which has been on strike since last month, thereby paralysing academic activities in the nation’s universities.

    The three unions are pushing for proper funding of the universities, earned allowances and non-representation in the membership of the committee which produced Needs Assessment report for the Nigerian universities.

    Addressing reporters in Abuja on Friday, the NASU President, Comrade Mrs. Ladi IIiya, called on well meaning Nigerians to prevail on government to implement the agreement it freely entered into with the workers to avoid plunging the nation’s universities into another round of needless crisis.

    She said the unions had exercise restraints in embarking on strike in the interest of the students, government and in protection of good academic standard the Nigerian universities had come to be noted for in recent time.

     

  • Varsity unions threaten showdown with FG over planned retrenchment

    Varsity unions threaten showdown with FG over planned retrenchment

    The three non-academic unions in the Nigeria universities, Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU), Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT), have warned the Federal Government to desist from the planned mass sack of the non-academic workers as recommended by Prof. Mahmud Yakubu- led committee.

    The SSANU National Vice-President in South-West, Comrade Alfred Jimoh, gave this warning on Friday, on behalf of the three unions at a congress organised which took place at the Paul Hendricks hall, University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan.

    Jimoh said the report of the committee is full of lies, deceit and misrepresentation, adding that if is implemented, the government should prepare for industrial violence in the nation’s universities.

    “Some of the 189 recommendation of the committee was that there should be an immediate disengagement of non-teaching staff, who are due for retrenchment and stoppage of universities from hiring non-teaching staff on casual, part time or contract basis. It also recommended the conversion of all non-teaching staff in Nigerian universities to the staff of federal or state Ministries of Education to enable government restrict administrative spending,” he said.

    The SSANU Vice-President wondered if the retrenchment of over 40 per cent of the non-teaching staff is the solution to the economic hardship in the country or the bad system of leadership and level of corruption.

    NAAT

  • NASU welcomes new retirement age

    Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) has praised President Goodluck Jonathan for signing into law the Act that raised the retirement age of non-academic staff of universities, polytechnics and colleges of education at 65 years.

    The union’s National President, Comrade Ladi Iliya, who spoke at the union’s National Executive Council (NEC) meeting in Asaba, Delta State, called on the government to make the same applicable to staff of research institutes and colleges of agriculture; in line with the agreement it reached with the Joint Research and Allied Institutions Sector Unions in 2009/2010.

    He urged the government to set in motion the necessary machinery to commence negotiation of all the 2009/2010 Collective Agreement signed with the universities, polytechnics, colleges of education and teaching hospitals unions, as enshrined in the agreements.

    NASU said the government must bear in mind that it is these collective agreements that have brought peace to the educational sector. He, however, observed that once in a while, the peace is broken as a result of government’s non implementation of the agreements.

    Agreeing with government on suspension of the N5000 note, Mrs Iliya stated that the policy would only aggravate the situation of the impoverished masses, adding that what it would cost to print the notes is enough to address sensitive sectors of the economy.

    “The policy will only achieve one thing. It would make stealing easier. It is not my intention to talk about everything that touches us as workers in order not to heat up the polity, Mrs Iliya, said.