The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has given the Federal Government a four-week deadline to finalise negotiations with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) or risk a nationwide strike.
Joe Ajaero, NLC president, was at an interactive session with labour correspondents in Abuja on Monday.
The session was held after a meeting between the congress and leaders of education sector unions.
“We have decided to give the federal government four weeks to conclude all negotiations in this sector. They have started talks with ASUU, but the problem in this sector goes beyond ASUU,” Ajaero stated.
“That is why we are extending this to four weeks. If after four weeks this negotiation is not concluded, the organs of the NEC will meet and take a nationwide action that all workers in the country, all unions in the country will be involved so that we get to the root of all this.
“The era of signing agreements, negotiations and threatening the unions involved, that era has come to an end.”
Ajaero stated that the NLC would now adopt a “no pay, no work” stance, arguing that the government should not benefit from crises it creates.
He added that about 90 percent of strikes in the country result from the government’s failure to honour agreements.
The NLC further condemned the government’s recent enforcement of the “no-work-no-pay” policy on members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), calling it unjust and punitive toward workers asserting their rights.
Earlier, the NLC had declared the union’s full solidarity with ASUU in the two-week warning strike.
“The struggle of ASUU is our struggle. The fight for public education is a fight for Nigeria’s future,” the congress had stated.
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