The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) declared it will
continue its nationwide strike after failing to reach an agreement in a meeting
with the government in Abuja yesterday.
ASUP had been on strike since October 1st 2013 and the
union’s National Publicity Secretary, Clement Chirman, stated that the
government had ignored their demands whilst concentrating on ASUU’s needs.
“It’s the same thing over and over again. It’s either we meet or
we are meeting or we will meet; and after all the meetings, up till now, none
of the issues have been tackled,” he said.
“Our expectation was since we were on strike while the government
was negotiating with ASUU and at that same time negotiating with us – our cases
were similar – government would have just handled the issues together and
forgot about them. But government went ahead and attended to just ASUU and left
ASUP.”
Mr Chirman blamed the government’s treatment of ASUP on the
general discrimination Polytechnics in Nigeria face, and declared that all
polytechnics would remain closed until their demands for funding and payment of
salary arrears were met.
ASUP are also demanding the removal of the discrimination against
HND holders in favour of University graduates in the workplace.
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