Nigerian doctors on indefinite strike in Ondo State
Resident doctors from the University of Medical Sciences Teaching Hospital in Ondo State,
Nigeria are on indefinite strike action due to not being paid their salaries and allowances. The
strike began November 9 after the resignation of over 50 doctors over the issue.
Doctors complained they are owed four-and-a half months of salary arrears as well as COVID-19
allowances and other entitlements.
Police brutality, poverty, mass unemployment and inequality has ignited mass protests in
Nigeria. Nigeria has 64,336 reported cases of COVID-19 and 1,160 deaths.
Nigerian oil workers heading for indefinite national strike
Oil workers in Nigeria are preparing for indefinite national stoppage over the introduction of
IPPIS, which has led to three months’ salary arrears.
IPPIS is an information communications technology payroll system initiated by the federal
government.
In August PENGASSAN and NUPENG suspended a warning strike over the introduction of IPPIS
for oil workers after union agreements made with the federal government, which the unions say
the government has now broken.
Zimbabwe striking teachers threatened with losing salaries
The Zimbabwe government is threatening to stop striking teachers’ salaries to force them to
return to work. Teachers refused to return to schools at the beginning of term September 28 to
protest poverty wages and the unsafe reopenings during the pandemic.
The Zimbabwe Teachers’ Association, Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe and other
unions had appealed to President Emmerson Mnangagwe, who is overseeing brutal attacks on
public sector workers. Runaway inflation around 800 percent means teachers’ salaries do not
cover bills or the basics of life.
Teachers were left isolated by the public sector unions’ recent betrayal of the health
workers’ four-month strike for a living wage and adequate PPE. Nurses’ salaries were also
stopped.
Zimbabwe has reported 8,667 coronavirus cases and 255 deaths—likely an underestimate given
the collapse of the health service.