We Urge the Three Unions to Name a Day for the Solidarity Strike Actions
PRESS STATEMENT
The Education Rights Campaign (ERC) fully welcomes the decision of three
trade unions - the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT), the National Union of
Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and the National Union of
Electricity Employees (NUEE) - to embark on solidarity strike actions to compel
the Federal Government to honour agreements signed with the Academic Staff
Union of Universities (ASUU).
The ERC urges the three unions to take this beyond the realm of threats and
immediately name a day on which the solidarity strike would take place and
begin active mobilisation of their rank and file members as well as students
who are frustrated at home and concerned Nigerians to come out en-masse for
mass protests and demonstrations on this
day. We commend the three unions for taking this decision which we
believe is in the best interest of the education sector and the Nation at
large.
We agree that the ASUU strike has gone on for far too long and the plethora
of strikes in the education sector are
just too many. On Tuesday 8 October, the ASUU strike became 100 days old.
Slowly the entire public education sector is grinding to a halt. For instance,
the public polytechnics are equally closed and it will not be too long before
the Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) follow suit. The
Colleges of Education lecturers had recently held a 7-day warning strike. Indeed,
the Academic Staff of Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) had to resume the strike,
they had suspended in July after three months, due to the insensitivity and
insincerity of government to their demands and terms of the suspension of the
last strike.
A wave of one-day solidarity strikes by the labour movement accompanied by
mass protests and demonstrations can alter this situation and compel the
Federal Government to meet the demands of ASUU, ASUP, COEASU and other unions
on industrial actions so that the schools can resume. This is why we commend the three unions for taking this
decision which we believe is in the best interest of the education sector and
the Nation at large.
The three unions come from key sectors of the Nation's economy. As such
their decision to embark on solidarity strike if given full and practical
effect could help pile pressure on the recalcitrant anti-poor Federal
Government to meet demands of striking
education unions so that public Universities and Polytechnics can be reopened for
academic activities to resume. This would also serve as an example for other
unions and the entire labour movement to follow.
We want to stress that the solidarity actions which the NUT, NUPENG and
NUEE have envisioned should also cover and back the strikes of ASUP, COEASU and
all other unions in the education sector that have any on-going dispute with
the government over pay, conditions and education funding. This is the best way
to ensure that all the outstanding disputes in the education sector are
resolved and all public Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Educations
are opened for full and undisrupted academic activities.
In welcoming and advocating for solidarity strikes, the ERC is quite aware
of the concern of some members of the public who are worried that solidarity
strikes especially from a union like the NUT would only shut down the entire
education sector to the detriment of ordinary Nigerians especially since
children of the rich few are not enrolled in public schools. This kind of
concern cannot be simply overlooked.
However the point that must be made is that with or without strikes, the
entire education sector including secondary and primary education has already
been destroyed and shutdown in terms of standard and quality that it is simply
a pipe dream to imagine any serious learning is going on at any point in time
in any of our public schools. Teachers in the secondary and primary schools are
not enough and are overworked, classrooms are overcrowded while in most schools
the roofs are leaking such that as a rule classes are not held during the rainy
season. While the products of public
Universities are said to be unemployable, products of public secondary schools
are mostly half-educated. In this kind of situation, public secondary and
primary schools as well as teachers stand to benefit immensely if the on-going
struggle to ensure government funds education adequately is won. This is why a
solidarity strike from the NUT is not only a step in the right direction but
something that needs to be built upon such that primary and secondary schools
teachers and pupils can be actively involved in the struggle to save public
education from collapse.
Indeed at this time, what is required is the unity of all unions in the
education sector including students in order
to jointly build a strong mass movement that can challenge the
government anti-poor and neo-liberal policies of education underfunding and
commercialisation.
Hassan Taiwo Soweto Michael Ogundele
National
Coordinator National Secretary
07033697259 07066249160
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