The university workers stage the protest to express their displeasure over their unpaid arrears.
The Workers and Youth Solidarity Network (WYSN) has declared support for the nationwide protest embarked upon by the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities and Non-Academic Staff Association of Education and Associated Institutions on Tuesday.
The university workers stage the protest to express their displeasure over their unpaid arrears.
A statement signed by WYSN Secretary, Comrade Iortyom Moses, on Tuesday, said, “We support SSANU and NASU and task the FG to meet their demands as a matter of urgency.
“Equally, we demand proper funding of the education sector.
“Workers and Youth Solidarity Network extend solidarity with the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities and Non-Academic Staff Association of Education and Associated Institutions, we support the demands of SSANU and NASU. We call on the federal government to meet the demands of the unions so that industrial crises can be averted.
“To us in WYSN, we believe that the federal government is guilty of stopping arrears of workers who were forced to embark on a strike to demand improved working conditions and other demands.
“If the government is responsible and quickly responds to demands of education workers, such long months of strikes that resulted in the federal government stopping their salaries would be prevented.
“Unfortunately, we are back to square one again. University workers on Sunday declared a nationwide protest. The NASU and SSANU unions have instructed their members to organise simultaneous nationwide protest on July 9, 2024, across all state chapters, with a follow-up national protest scheduled in Abuja on July 18, 2024, as stated in a message addressed to all branch chairmen of the respective unions over their 4 months withheld salaries.”
According to a statement earlier issued by the Joint Action Committee of the two unions, SSANU and NASU, their meeting with government representatives collapsed.
WYSN said it “believes that the government has enough resources to fund free, functional, and quality education at all levels, even beyond the current demands of the education sector unions for a one-off funding intervention in the sector”.
“Less than 10,000 political appointees are defrauding this country through their outrageous remuneration and contracts system. The same government rushes to buy cars for legislators, their political cronies and others affiliated to them one way or the other,” it said.
It called on the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) to support the university workers’ protests until victory us achieved.
“We call on other education workers and civil society groups like the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), and the National Association of Nigeria students to support these strikes and join in solidarity until their demands are met,” it added.