ASUP suspends nationwide strike

The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) has suspended its nationwide strike

Usman Duste, national president of ASUP, announced this on Wednesday during the union’s 14th national delegates conference holding in Bauchi state.

ASUP embarked on the industrial action on November 13 over the failure of the federal government to implement its agreements with the union reached since 2016.

Dutse said the union was prompted to suspend the strike after the series of meetings it held with the federal government.

“The union considered the suspension to give an opportunity for implementation of the content of Memorandum of Settlement and Action, and shall be reviewed according to the timelines outlined in the MoS,” Duste said.

“While we are not unaware of the government over the years to willfully renege on agreements of this nature with labour unions including ours, it is the considered view of our union that the contents of this MoS be given a chance of implementation particularly as there is a mechanism for monitoring and evaluation embedded in the MoS.

“Our union’s congress has been fully briefed on these developments and I am therefore to communicate the decision of our union to suspend the 15 days old strike action of our union effective Wednesday, 28th November, 2017.”

Dutse added that in arriving at the decision to call off the strike, ASUP considered the impact of the action on the society, parents and students.

He said: “We want to assure Nigerian public that our struggle shall continue to be focused on the survival of this vital sector and in the same vein express our gratitude to all well meaning Nigerians including members of the media and our members for the support and understanding during this period.”