August 12, (THEWILL) – The Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) has suspended its nationwide strike.
A communiqué jointly signed by President of COEASU, Smart Olugbeko and General Secretary, Ahmed Lawan Bazza, said the decision to suspend the strike was taken at the end of its national executive council (NEC) meeting, held in Abuja, to reassess the status of issues leading to the three-week rollover of the national strike.
It said the union based its decision to suspend the strike on what it described as a satisfactory improvement on issues contained in the workers’ demand.
“While appreciating critical stakeholders for their intervention and dogged commitment to the resolution of the issues, as evident in the enormous progress made at the ongoing renegotiation and the appreciable level of progress made towards the amendment of the Colleges of Education Establishment Act, which is paramount for the development of the COE system.
“NEC resolved that the nationwide strike action started on 10th June, 2022, be suspended for a Cool-off-period of 60 days to give the government the opportunity to perfect the progress made so far into tangible achievements that are acceptable to the Union, after which the NEC shall reconvene to re-assess the status of the issues and decide the way forward.
It said the National Executive Council (NEC) of the union met at NCCE, Abuja, on Wednesday, to re-assess the status of issues leading to the three-week roll-over of the national strike action that started June 10, 2022 and decide the way forward.
“NEC noted with cautious satisfaction that significant improvement has been achieved on the issues which informed the roll-over of the national strike action as follows:
“The federal government has yielded to the Union’s demand for the constitution of a committee of critical stakeholders including, but not limited to representatives of the Union, to, among others, draw modalities for the disbursement of the revitalisation fund of N15 billion only to COEs without further delay”, the communique read.
It also said that the renegotiation of COEASU-FGN 2010 agreement, on which the government has been dilly-dallying over time, has eventually commenced and it was satisfied by the progress made so far.
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