ASUP Strike Update

STRIKE: Senate raises task force on ASUP’s action
In a bid to break the two-month old strike of the
Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP),
Senate yesterday set up a task force to resolve the
dispute. Chairman of the Senate Committee on
Education, Uche Chukwumerije, disclosed this to
Daily Sun in Abuja.
He expressed optimism that the industrial action
would soon be resolved as “all stakeholders in
the dispute have tabled their demands and there
seems to be headway in the negotiations…”
Last Tuesday’s meeting in Abuja was the third the
Senate is wading into the dispute; having met with
ASUP and the Education Minister, Prof. Ruqayyatu
Rufa’i twice last month.
But a source on the Education Committee,
however, told Daily Sun that in furtherance of the
Senate’s intervention, the Ministers of Education
and Labour, together with ASUP officials met with
the task force on Tuesday where the striking
polytechnic teachers tabled their conditions.
The source said inability to resolve the dispute
before now was because of some conditions
tabled by ASUP but which is now being resolved
by all the stakeholders. “ASUP insisted that
polytechnics should be fully involved in NIPPIS.
They want to be consulted. They also demanded
implementation of CONTISS 15 as well as the
resuscitation of Visitation Panels.
“ASUP also demanded that the Federal
Government must complete the appointment of
governing boards for polytechnics. The officials
said that some of the governing boards are
already in place but that there remained about
five or six remaining to be filled. The ASUP also
wanted a more participatory approach to evolving
policies which affects polytechnics…”
With regards to the ASUU’s indefinite industrial
action, Daily Sun gathered that, “preliminary
discussions have started. We will soon meet with
the officials but the committee is disappointed
that ASUU didn’t put us into confidence before
going on strike