The latest ASUP strike update is that the meeting scheduled for Thursday, 12th June, 2014 will determine the course of the ongoing ASUU strike within the next few days. National Publicity secretary, ASUP Clement Chairman also added that the strike would be called off very soon.
Read the full details as reported by Premium Times:
An end to the protracted ASUP strike seems to be further away than many people had hoped.
It had been reported that that the national executives of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) will meet on Thursday, 12th June, 2014 to review the ongoing strike and negotiations with the Federal Government.
In Thursday’s meeting, the union’s negotiating team would brief its executives of new developments.
The National Publicity secretary, ASUP Clement Chairman confirmed this to Premium Times.
“We are meeting to appraise the level of negotiation and to also decide on the next line of action,” he said.
Many, especially polytechnic students who have held several protests since the commencement of the strike, had hoped that Thursday’s meeting would reconcile all differences and bring a positive end to negotiations which have long been abandoned in the standoff.
But this seems not to be the case, even though recent negotiations have reportedly been positive.
A source among the ASUP leadership, who spoke on conditions of anonymity said the meeting, which will hold in Abuja, will not call off the strike, but would review the negotiations.
He however added that the strike would be called off very soon.
ASUP has been strike since October 4, 2013 over a number of demands which include the need for constituting a Governing Councils of Federal Polytechnics, the migration of the lower cadres on the CONTISS 15 salary scale, the release of the White Paper on the Visitations to Federal Polytechnics, and the need for the commencement of the Needs Assessment of Nigerian Polytechnics.
Colleges of Education and Academic Staff Union, COEASU, have also been on a seven-month strike.
With hopes of the strike ending on Thursday now dimming fast, one cannot but wonder when the strike-held leaders of tomorrow will become leaders of tomorrow.
Many students have already sought alternatives outside the polytechnics system while a number of them have been arrested for crimes all over the country.
It is therefore time to do something to make sure that the future leaders are actually ready for the future.