ASUP PRESIDENT SAYS “NO GOING BACK ON STRIKE”

The President of the Academic
Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP),
Mr. Chibuzor Asomugha on
Wednesday confirmed the union’s
resolve to embark on a strike two
months after suspending one. The decision to embark on the strike by Friday 4 thOctober, according to Asomugha, was reached at the 75th National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of
the union. He threatened that the union will
go on strike due to the fact that
“government has not done
anything to address the issues”
two months after suspending the
strike. He said the union gave the federal
government a two-month grace
to enable them negotiate and
settle the issues at hand but noted
that “none of these issues have
been wholesomely addressed”. Speaking on Channels Television’s
breakfast flagship programme,
Sunrise Daily, Asomugha further
said that “nothing has been done”
to address the issues at hand. He noted that the federal
government hasn’t fulfilled its
bargain in the 2009 FG/ASUP
agreement, that was supposed
tobe re-negotiated in 2012 adding
that the review of the Federal Polytechnic Act, which was last
done in 2004, should have been
carried out to ensure efficient
running of polytechnics in Nigeria. Asomugha also faulted the federal
government’s decision not to
constitute governing councils for
6 federal polytechnics adding that
the release of the white paper on
the visitation to the polytechnics also forms part of their
grievances. The union had earlier released a
statement notifying the federal
government of its decision to
close down institutions by the
end of the week if government
does not honour the agreements reached. The statement added that union
will not renege on the planned
strike except these issues are
addressed by the government and
called on the National Assembly to
expedite action on the review of the Polytechnic Act. It also noted the anti-labour stance
of the National Assembly as
exemplified by the recently
proposed removal of minimum
wage from the exclusive
legislative list of the constitution to the concurrent list; as well as
the proposed legislation against
declaration of Industrial Strike by
unions in the tertiary sector. The union also noted that “the
CONTISS 15 Migration for Lower
cadres, Needs Assessment of
Polytechnics, release of
whitepaper of visitation to Federal
polytechnics, discrimination between polytechnics and
university graduates in job
placement and career progression
and the constitution of Governing
Councils to Federal polytechnics
earlier omitted, were among the issues it brought before the
Federal Government in their last
negotiation, but added that
government has failed to address
any of them since it suspended its
strike in July”