The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) on Wednesday embarked on an indefinite strike over non-implementation of the 2009 and 2017 agreement reached with the union by the federal government.
With this development, the polytechnic lecturers have joined their university counterparts who have been on strike since November 4.
ASUP National President, Usman Dutse, said the federal government had invited the union for dialogue on December 17 but the strike would still go on till then.
The union prior to the strike, had on October 2 issued a 21-day ultimatum to the government before it extended it to November, albeit, did not commence the strike. Dutse said the strike had commenced, adding that there is total compliance by all chapters.
“We have zonal coordinators and a monitoring team, zone by zone, all over the country. Already from the report we are getting, we are satisfied with the level of compliance from all our zones but we are reviewing the day’s activity in a meeting now,” he said.
Dutse lamented that the government failed to implement the agreements it reached with the union as contained in the memorandum of understanding both parties signed.
The union went on strike over non-implementation of the NEEDS Assessment report of 2014, non-payment of salaries in state-owned institutions, non-payment of allowances, and the victimisation of union members, among others.
ASUP had gone on strike in November 2017, but when the federal government reached an agreement to implement the recommendations of the 2014 NEEDS assessment, the strike was called off 15 days after. The agreement particularly highlighted the need for increased funding of polytechnics.