The two-week-old strike embarked upon by teachers in public primary and secondary schools in Delta State may soon be called-off.
This indication followed a meeting between Governor Ifeanyi Okowa and the leadership of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT), Delta State wing, led by the chairman, Comrade Jonathan Jemirieyigbe.


Jemirieyigbe told journalists in Warri after the meeting that deliberations were very fruitful, adding that the industrial action will be suspended in a matter of days.
“Between now and Monday, we will call off the strike, we had a very fruitful discussion with the governor.

We are Deltans and the Governor, Senator Okowa is a good man, dealing with us the way fathers deal with their children,” he said.

While commending the governor for being labour-friendly, Jemirieyigbe however failed to state if the issues that led to strike were totally addressed.


Daily Sun recall that the state NUT commenced strike action on March 9, 2017 in protest over alleged non-payment of primary school teachers salaries, entitlements and non-release of promotion of secondary school teachers among other issues.


Okowa who also spoke to newsmen did not also reveal if his administration has sufficiently addressed the lingering issues but said the meeting was fruitful “and we discussed issues concerning the teachers and how to move our state forward.”


Present at the meeting was the Special Adviser to the Governor on Labour Matters, Comrade Mike Okeme, among others.
Before now, Governor Okowa and his aides had consistently maintained that the administration has met all its obligations to secondary school teachers but that teachers in primary schools were being owed some months of salaries as a result of the inability of local government council to pay due to short fall in allocation.


His efforts to force secondary school teachers out of the strike was frustrated by the leadership of NUT, as students who dared to resume on March 20, according to the governor’s directive, were chased home by teachers.

SOURCE

http://sunnewsonline.com/delta-govt-nut-reach-truce-strike-may-end-soon/