No work, No pay: ASUP, COEASU Vow to Continue Strike Action

No work, No pay: ASUP, COEASU Vow to Continue Strike Action:

Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics and the Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union on Sunday vowed to continue with their strike action.

The unions said they will not succumb to blackmail of the Minister of Education, Nyesom Wike who had continued to treat them as second class workers in the education sector.

Nigeria Labour Congress had on March 18 called on the Federal Government to respond to the demands of the lecturers.

The Polytechnic lecturers have been on strike since October 2013, while their counterparts in Colleges of Education started theirs since December 2013.

Addressing journalists in Abuja, the ASUP President, Mr. Chibuzor Asomugha and Abuja Chairman of COEASU, Dr. Ahmed Lawal said their proposed joint protest rally would still hold on Tuesday in collaboration with civil society organizations.

Asomugha who recalled that the struggle started on April 22, 2013 when ASUP went on seven day earning strike said the Federal Government had continued to neglect the demands of the union.

He maintained that the strike was not about money as government had made it look.

“If the Federal Government paid the whole money today the strike continues because it is not about money.

“The strike was suspended based on promise from the government. Unfortunately the government did not do anything about the issues it promised to tackle.

The union said government had only commissioned the governing councils of six out of the polytechnics that were omitted in the first schedule and raised the Needs Assessment Committee while it refused to pay the CONTISS 15 arrears and did not release the white paper on visitation panel to the polytechnics. (Punch)