The Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Cross River State branch, yesterday said it would not join the ongoing strike embarked upon by the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress (NLC/TUC) in the state for obvious reasons.
Speaking in a symposium organised by NUT in collaboration with Bloom Consulting in Calabar, Chairman of the state NUT, Mr. Eyo Nsa-Etim, who also doubles as the Vice Chairman for the state NLC, pointed out that the teachers union was not invited for the meeting when the decision to call members of the NLC and the TUC out for strike on October 2, a situation which would cripple the state’s work force.
“For now, we are totally not involved in the strike. We have some programmes at hand, and if we join them in the strike now, we cannot celebrate our world teachers’ day coming up on October 5.
“Also, the state government is trying to solve labour problems in the state. We believe that the state government ought to have been given a little time to respond to the issues raised by NLC and TUC.
“We may join along the way, but I think the present government is still new and deserves some time to put things in order.
“Their reasons for the strike is that government had failed to pay promotion arrears, no promotion of civil servants, no release of deductions from salaries, no funding of ministries, department and agencies among others,’’ he said.
Nsa-Etim maintained that the organised labour decided to embark on strike without informing the NUT in the state.
“We cannot take part in what we did not originate. NLC and TUC would have given the government a little time before embarking on strike,’’ he said.
According to him, the backlogs of arrears been demanded were incurred by the previous administration in the state.
Saturday Mirror gathered that the symposium was organised to celebrate teachers for their roles in molding the character and development of children
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