The non-teaching staff of the Anambra State-owned Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University (COOU), Awka, may begin an indefinite strike on Wednesday, if the state government refuses to meet their demands.
The staff have given the university’s management up to August 14, 2019 to meet their demands or face an indefinite industrial action.
The non-teaching staff of the Institution are made up of three unions; National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT), Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities (NASU) and Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) .
The Unions under the aegis of Joint Action Committee of Trade Unions (JAC), said they had earlier issued several notices of industrial actions, claiming that the university is owing them over N4.6 billion.
The unions said they had fully notified the Governing Council and management of the university about the actions they were preparing to take if their demand were not met before 14th August 2019.
In the a statement jointly signed by the JAC leader/Chairman, NAAT-COO; Comrade A.C. Okeke; Chairman, NASU-COOU, Comrade F.O. Nwaibe and Chairman, SSANU-COOU, Comrade Oddih Obiora and was made available to Daily Trust, the unions said they had exhausted all available avenues to avoid an industrial action, but the school management had refused to address their demands.
“As we prepare to shut the university, the unions in the university have pleaded, dialogued and signed various agreements/MoUs with the Governing Council. We have also brought all our demands to the university management and Governing Council of the university.
“Remember that in our usual way of ‘understanding the financial predicaments’ of the university, we shelved our intended strike earlier scheduled for 15th May, 2019. This was to pave way for proper negotiations with the university authorities but nothing has come out from those negotiations as our conditions of service keep worsening while the university management are maintaining their stance of ‘there is no money,’ Council are maintaining their snail-speed and foot-dragging approach to our demands,” the unions stated.
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