Railway workers threaten to strike and criticise the government’s handling of the ongoing ASUU impasse

In reaction to protracted negotiations for improved welfare that have so far yielded no results, the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) announced on Wednesday that it would go on a protracted strike.

The union complained that no “major achievement” had been noted eight months after its three-day nationwide warning strike.

NUR condemned the government’s handling of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) strike, labelling the current administration’s “no work, no pay” approach hypocritical. The strike is still in effect.

Innocent Luka Ajiji and Segun Esan, the president and secretary of NUR, pleaded with the government in a statement released on Wednesday to spare the hopelessness of millions of Nigerian children.

In the greatest interests of the entire nation, it asked the Federal Government to act promptly to end the impasse.

The railway workers also urged that the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari use the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) payment platform.

The statement read, “Nigerian Railway workers under the aegis of the Nigeria Union of Railway workers strongly condemn the vapid and uninspiring attitude of the Federal Government to end the lingering face-off between it and the Unions of Universities, Polytechnics, Colleges of Education, and Research Institutions, especially on the government’s no-work-no pay policy on the striking workers of the universities and other tertiary institutions.

“We, therefore, appeal to the federal government to meet the legitimate charter of demands of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) with no further delay and save the nation’s education sector from total collapse. The federal government should be responsible enough to end the ongoing ASUU strike and rescue millions of Nigerian schooling youths who are majorly the children of the working class and poor masses from ruins and tempestuous engagements. The federal government should always remember that an idle hand is the devil’s workshop.

“Most importantly, the Federal Government should adopt the preferred salary payment platform in place of IPPIS as proposed by the striking university lecturers and also do all that is necessary for the infrastructural development of the nation’s ivory towers.

“In the same vein, the condemnable insensitivity of the management and the Board of Nigerian Railway Corporation to the welfare and wellbeing of the teeming railway workers may compel the industry to witness a total and indefinite strike action any moment from now.

“It is unfortunate and most disheartening that, almost 8 months after the Nigerian Railway workers’ 3-day nationwide warning strike of November 2021 was suspended and clear agreement reached between the Union and the management with January 2022 deadline for the management to provide answers to the charter of demands of the workers, no significant achievement has been made by the management so far to assuage the aggrieved workers till now.”