Campaign for Democratic and Workers’ Rights (CDWR) has condemned the federal government’s refusal to pay university workers a backlog of salaries owed to them.
The group’s national chairperson, Comrade Rufus Olusesan and national publicity secretary, Comrade Chinedu Bosah noted that Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) members were owed four months’ salaries.
It added that the federal government also withheld three months salaries of members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
According to the group, the continuous withholding of salaries forced SSANU and NASU members to embark on strike action and protest on Tuesday, July 9, 2024.
CDWR who identified with the university workers in their struggle to win their demands appealed to SSANU, NASU and ASUU to struggle together and embark on joint mass actions until their demands were met.
“The federal government unjustly withheld the salaries because the members of the staff unions embarked on strike demanding adequate funding of education and improved working conditions.
“The government is criminalizing protest and strike action, which is a democratic, constitutional and inalienable right of workers and Nigerians in general. Hence, this unjust withholding of salaries violates workers’ democratic rights and subjects workers to economic hardship”, it explained.
