As the second round of the eight-week warning strike embarked upon by members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, ends today, the union is poised to go on an indefinite industrial action,
Sources said the national leadership of the union would make public its decision today.
It was gathered that the National Executive Committee, NEC, of the union had earlier given the go ahead to the national leadership to call out members on indefinite strike, if nothing tangible was achieved during the eight weeks of their warning strike.
The union had earlier gone on a month warning strike on February 14 this year, and extended it by another eight weeks, which comes to an end today.
While ASUU was into the second round of its warning strike, other staff unions in the university system also embarked on strike.
The unions are Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, SSANU; National Association of Academic Technologists, NAAT, and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Education and Allied Institutions, NASU.
Though the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, had met with the leadership of SSANU, NAAT and NASU, noting concrete came out of the meetings.
He is yet to meet with ASUU leadership, though he announced last weekend that he would meet with them.
When contacted, National President of ASUU, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, said the union had not got any invitation from the government’s team as at the weekend.
“We too heard it in the news what the Minister of Labour said about meeting with us, but as we talk, nobody has reached out to us for any meeting. We don’t know when the meeting will be called,” he said.
Asked what would be the next line of action, Osodeke said the national leadership of the union would decide that.