Monday, 7 October 2013

NUPENG joins Asuu on Solidarity strike

Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas
Workers, NUPENG, weekend, threatened stop
distribution of petroleum products across the
country if the Federal Government failed to
implement the agreement reached with the
Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU.
Though no specific date was fixed for the
commencement of the solidarity strike, the union
said the strike became necessary in view of the
lingering ASUU crisis which the government had
failed to resolve in the last three months.
NUPENG President, Igwe Achese, who spoke at the
union’s National Administrative Council, NAC,
meeting, weekend in Lagos, said NUPENG was not
happy at the crisis facing public university system
in the country.
He blamed the crisis on government’s failure to
honour agreements, lamenting that this had led to
the proliferation of strikes in nearly all sectors of
the economy since the beginning of the year.
According to him: “We appeal to government to
implement agreement reached with ASUU so that
students can go back to school. If the crisis in the
sector is not resolved, we will soon direct our
members to embark on solidarity strike.”
Achese blamed the Ministry of Labour for failing in
its responsibility to check the break-down and
abuse of laws governing industrial relations
practice in the country by employers including
government.
“The Ministry of Labour needs to be proactive if we
must get these issues nipped in the bud. The
ministry also needs to make sure that agreements
reached or communiqué signed are implemented.
“The ministry has a big role to play to avert strikes
in the country. When unions begin to lose faith in
the ministry that is when we have this kind of crisis.
The labour minister should be firm in making sure
that the right decisions are taken.
“As it is now, every activity in the Ministry of
Labour is in the office of the Secretary to the
Government of the Federation, SGF, which ought
not to be so.
The role of the SGF should be to
intervene only when the need arises.”
It would be recalled that the NUT last week gave
the Federal Government two weeks ultimatum to
honour the agreement it reached with ASUU or face
total shut-down of the education sector in the
country.
Source: Vanguard

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