ASUU STRIKE: No be today "The No Work No Pay" Tactics by FG says ASUU

The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has resolved to stay the cause of its over three months strike, despite indications that the federal government has directed university councils to effect the “No work, no pay” rule. University lecturers embarked on an indefinite strike on July 1 to protest what it said was federal government’s refusal to implement the letter and spirit of the 2009 agreement.

Reacting to the said directive, Chairman of the University of Calabar, UNICAL, branch of ASUU, Dr. James Okpiliya, called the bluff of the federal government, saying that the “no work, no pay” policy, was an old “tactic”, which past governments, especially the military, adopted in their efforts to break the ranks of lecturers.

This was even as the senior lecturer in the Department of English and Literary Studies, UNICAL, threatened that whenever the protracted strike was called-off, lecturers would retaliate by invoking “the principle of ‘No pay, no work”.

“It’s an old government tactics right from the time of military, to break our ranks. Just as it didn’t work then, it will not work now,” Okpiliya maintained. He revealed that lecturers were being owed two months salaries, adding, however, that the development would strengthen the “warring” lecturers’ resolve.

Okpiliya said: “Yes, we have not been paid for two months; it has made us stronger and more resolved than before. However, after the strike, we will invoke the principle of “No pay, no work”.

Also confirming the latest development, ASUU chairman (Abuja Zone), Mr. Clement Chup, said: “We have resorted to other welfare strategies to cope with the effect of the strike, particularly to contain the various attempts by government to break the resolve of the union.

“The federal government has through the National Universities Commission, directed universities to stop the payment of our salaries effective September this year, and since then our salaries have not been paid,” Chup disclosed at the end of the zonal meeting on Thursday.

It would be recalled that several meetings held between the federal government and the Dr. Nasir Fagge-led ASUU, to resolve the issues in dispute, have failed, as both warring parties stuck to their guns.

For instance, whereas the federal government has released N30 billion as part of the “Earned Allowance” demanded by the union, the latter is insisting on the full release of the N92 billion.

Even the release of N100 billion to bridge the noticeable “infrastructural deficits” in the country has not changed the status quo. http://www.osundefender.org/?p=126257