Posted By:
Unknown
on 10/10/2013 05:35:00 pm
phcnworkers.....In solidarity with the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, the National Union of Electricity Employees, NUEE, has given the Federal Government seven days to resolve the ongoing strike or face a total shut down of electricity facilities in the country.
This latest show of solidarity is coming on the heels of similar warnings given by the Nigerian union of Teachers, NUT, and the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, which have both given indication that they will down tools if the strike is not resolved soon enough.
NUEE, while justifying its decision to cause nationwide blackout in solidarity with the striking varsity lecturers, said that it could no longer sit back and watch those in positions of authority destroy the future of young Nigerians, who have remained at home for weeks on account of the Federal Government’s refusal to meet the legitimate demands by ASUU.
General Secretary of NUEE, Mr Joe Ajaero, who spoke at a training workshop for labour leaders in the power sector in Enugu, said that electricity workers across the country would be directed to join other progressive labour unions “to shut down the country” as a way of showing their displeasure over the lingering face-off between the Federal Government and the academic staff.
“We can no longer sit back and watch this disturbing drama going on between the Federal government and ASUU. If the strike is not addressed within the next one week, NUEE and other progressive unions will shut down the country,” Mr. Ajaero said.
“It is unfortunate that those in power are not bothered about the closure of the universities. They are less concerned because none of their children are studying in Nigerian universities.
“Their children are overseas just as they travel overseas for medical attention because they have allowed our hospitals to die. Whether our children are out of school or not they are not bothered but we are going to join our children to stay at home from next week.”
The union urged the National Assembly to make laws that will ban public office holders from sending their children and wards to study abroad just as foreign medical trips by public officers should also be outlawed to enable government address the numerous problems bedeviling the nation.
“Our public institutions are dead because those unpatriotic leaders have nothing to do with them but when they are banned from traveling overseas to access improved facilities, they will have no option than to look inward and address our numerous challenges,” he added.
- VANGUARD
Posted By:
Unknown
on 10/10/2013 11:22:00 am
Cape Town - The ANC has a realistic chance of taking back governance of the Western Cape from the Democratic Alliance, provincial party leader Marius Fransman said on Thursday.
"Indeed I say so, we will be able to govern again and some would be able to say 'impossible'," he told the Cape Town Press Club.
"I would be able to say for those doubting Thomases, we're going to get Table Mountain to disappear so that you at least believe what I'm saying."
Fransman said the ANC brand in the province had strengthened since 2011 and come out of Mangaung without an implosion in the provincial leadership.
Issues
The focus ahead of national elections next year was to draft a provincial manifesto by speaking to communities about what 25 issues affected them.
The party would be punting the future of agriculture and a new deal for farmworkers in this document.
Fransman said they would also push to act on the Employment Tax Incentive Bill, which was recently published for comment.
"... There's not too much action and so we're saying to national government, let's act on this issue in the manifesto process."
The manifesto would be adopted by the ANC national executive committee next month and be made public in January.
Fransman admitted the party had put an unequal focus on highlighting service delivery issues in the DA administration at the expense of economic policy issues.
"We'll even make certain concessions in that and say even the last few years, our focus [has been] on service delivery. As we've assessed our own situation we've said it's important to look at the economy and factors that will bring stabilisation.
"The strategic question is, and what the ANC is starting to argue, can we take the debate on soundbites away, can we take the debate on politics of deception away, and can we get into a real debate on the economy?"
Economy
He said the Western Cape had slipped into third place, behind KwaZulu-Natal, in its contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the past five years.
Despite this, the DA chose to point fingers at the ANC for damaging the economy by playing a part in the recent so-called "poo protests", which blocked the N2 highway at regular intervals earlier in the year.
"It [pointing fingers] can be an argument in the short-term but not in the long-term."
Fransman said the party had publicly distanced itself from the protests as an "unacceptable and vulgar campaign", and instituted disciplinary procedures against those responsible.
Asked if he believed he had led the party well, Fransman said the success of winning wards from the DA in by-elections spoke for itself.
On cadre deployment, he said it was a misnomer that it was an "ANC thing".
"Since 2009... there was very serious cadre deployment. They'd taken out all our director generals, at least 90% were taken out and replaced by people who would be loyal to the government in this province," he said.
"As the leader of the ANC, I understand that, as long there is the capability of those to deliver. I'm saying it's clear to us that on the surface that capability exists but on the depth of it there is a dilemma."
- SAPA
Posted By:
Unknown
on 10/08/2013 03:52:00 pm
PLEASE,LETS US TAKE THIS SERIOUS BECAUSE OUR SINCERE COMMENT CAN STOP THE STRIKE.
FORUM
Should ASUU call off the strike even without FG granting their requests or should they persist. Share your honest opinions, backing them up with reasons.
BEFORE YOU PUT YOUR COMMENT.PLEASE READ THIS NEWS FOR A SECOND THOUGHT.
ASUU NATIONAL PRESIDENT, DR. NASIR ISA FAGGE
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) yesterday declared that following the Federal Government’s inability to resolve the lingering crisis in the nation’s universities, it had lost faith in government.
This was the position of the chairman of ASUU, University of Benin (UNIBEN) chapter, Comrade Anthony Monye-Emina, who spoke in Benin, the Edo State capital.
He insisted that the strike must go on to achieve its desired results just as he expressed the union’s loss of confidence in the Federal Government’s sincerity to meet the terms of the agreement it entered into willingly with ASUU.
He said one of the reasons why they are insisting that their demands must be met is because the government initially denied the existence of the 2009 agreement which was signed by its officials.
“We can no longer trust government; we have lost faith in its willingness to deliver on the issues that led to the strike in the first place,” he said.
-Daily Trust
PLEASE PUT YOUR LAUDABLE COMMENT BELOW
Posted By:
Unknown
on 10/07/2013 02:38:00 pm
Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, weekend, threatened stop distribution of petroleum products across the country if the Federal Government failed to implement the agreement reached with the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU.
Although the union did not fix a specific date was fixed for the commencement of the solidarity strike, it said the strike became necessary in view of the lingering ASUU strike which the government had failed to resolve in the last three months.
Speaking at NUPENG’s National Administrative Council, NAC, meeting, weekend in Lagos, President, Igwe Achese expressed his displeasure at the crisis facing public university system in the country.
He blamed the crisis on government’s failure to honour agreements, lamenting that this had led to the proliferation of strikes in nearly all sectors of the economy since the beginning of the year.
“We appeal to government to implement agreement reached with ASUU so that students can go back to school. If the crisis in the sector is not resolved, we will soon direct our members to embark on solidarity strike.”
Achese also blamed the Ministry of Labour for failing in its responsibility to check the breakdown and abuse of laws governing industrial relations practice in the country by employers including government.
try this
“The Ministry of Labour needs to be proactive if we must get these issues nipped in the bud. The ministry also needs to make sure that agreements reached or communiqué signed are implemented.
“The ministry has a big role to play to avert strikes in the country. When unions begin to lose faith in the ministry that is when we have this kind of crisis. The labour minister should be firm in making sure that the right decisions are taken.
“As it is now, every activity in the Ministry of Labour is in the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, which ought not to be so. The role of the SGF should be to intervene only when the need arises.”
The Nigeria Union of Teachers, NUT, had last week given the Federal Government two weeks ultimatum to honour the agreement it reached with ASUU or face total shut-down of the education sector in the country.
The total shutdown seems imminent now as the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, ASUP, resumes its suspended strike today after it said the government failed to fulfill its promises.
