The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), announced a one day nationwide protest over the Federal Government’s inconclusive negotiations with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) which has led to the extension of the union’s strike action.
The NLC President, Mr Ayuba Wabba disclosed this at the opening of the Congress’ Central Working Committee (CWC) meeting on Thursday in Abuja, according to NAN.
They said the purpose of the strike is to force the FG to find a close to the negotiations.
What the NLC is saying
The NLC chief said he was sad over the continued closure of Nigeria’s Universities due to unresolved labour disputes between the Federal Government and unions in education.
- Wabba said, “You will recall that the last decision we took, we even went to the extent of writing to President Muhammadu Buhari, we gave a 21-day notice for them to converge a very high powered meeting.
- “We demanded that the meeting should be chaired either by the Secretary of Government of the Federation (SGF), or the Chief of Staff to the President, for this issue to be resolved once and for all.
- “That meeting was called, but from the reports that I have been receiving from all the unions in the education sector, progress has not been made.
- “The timeline of three weeks that was given to the committees for all reports to be turned in, and for government to be able to take a concrete decision, has not been met.”
- He added that “Therefore, the Central Working Committee has decided that there will be a one-day national protest. This is to call the attention of government to resolve the issues immediately.”
He said the NLC has asked affiliates by the next one week to issue statements adding that the decision to embark on the one-day national protest was imperative as children of the poor had continued to remain at home.
In case you missed it
Nairametrics reported last week that ASUU maintained that they have not received any official invitation from the Federal Government for the earlier announced meeting with the government team aimed at resolving the areas of disagreements and calling off the strike.