BREAKING: ASUU Declares Total, Indefinite Strike
POLITICS DIGEST – The Academic Staff Union of Universities has commenced a total indefinite strike.
The union’s President, Biodun Ogunyemi, at a press briefing in its National Secretariat in Abuja on Monday, noted that the Federal Government had failed to address the issues raised by its members.
The union had just concluded a two weeks warning strike which now rolled over to an indefinite one.
He explained that the action became necessary following the Federal Government’s refusal to address issues raised in its 2019 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) as well as its objection to joining the Integrated Pay Roll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS)
He said: “Following the declaration of the two-week warning strike at the Enugu State University, ASUU and government have held consultative meetings on 12th March, 2020 and 17th March, 2020, respectively. ASUU made it clear at those meetings that our union was always in pains going on short, or long term strike.
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“However, we equally made it clear that no responsible union will sit idly watching its members’ welfare and survival being trampled upon. In view of these developments, an emergency meeting of the National Executive Council (NEC) of ASUU was held in Abuja last Saturday, 21 March, 2020 to review the warning strike and take decisions on government’s proposal for resolving the crisis.
“Based on the review of the reports from ASUU leadership’s engagements with the government, NEC concluded that the government had failed to satisfactorily address the outstanding issues raised in the FGN-ASUU 2019 MoA and ignored the objections of ASUU against IPPIS.
“Consequently, NEC resolved to embark on a total, comprehensive and indefinite strike action beginning from Monday, March 23, 2020 until the issues are satisfactorily resolved.
“ASUU rejects the application of force on our members to join IPPIS irrespective of the patriotic evidence shown by the union to offer a more credible alternative to IPPIS.”
Ogunyemi said even though the government has told ASUU that it now accepts the union’s proposal on its payroll model, University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS), it saw its appeal to join IPPIS as a booby trap.
“Government has told ASUU that it now accepts the union’s proposal on UTAS with the given timelines for full development; one, software development, six months; two, alpha testing, three months; three, beta testing, six months; four, stable release, three months.
“However, the appeal of the government to encourage ASUU members enroll on IPPIS within the intervening period before the full development of UTAS was rejected as a booby trap,” Ogunyemi added.
