Despite Monday’s suspension of the three months strike embarked upon by workers of tertiary institutions in Plateau State, the leadership of the union of Plateau State Polytechnic lecturers has stated that its members may not shelf the strike until the national industrial action was fully called off.

In a chat with one of our partners, the National Publicity Secretary of the Academic Union of Polytechnics stated that the industrial action embarked upon by ASUP, affects every tertiary instution and that lecturers of tertiary institution in Plateau State could not be exempted. Futher stating that most tertiary institutions within Plateau were bounded by the directive including: the School of Health Technology, Zawan; College of Education, Gindiri; and School of arts and sciences, Kurgwi. “They are not in a position to resume work, until we resolve key issues with the Federal Government”, he was quoted as saying.

Despite Monday’s suspension of the three months strike embarked upon by workers of tertiary institutions in Plateau State, the leadership of the union of Plateau State Polytechnic lecturers has stated that its members may not shelf the strike until the national industrial action was fully called off.

In a chat with one of our partners, the National Publicity Secretary of the Academic Union of Polytechnics stated that the industrial action embarked upon by ASUP, affects every tertiary instution and that lecturers of tertiary institution in Plateau State could not be exempted. Futher stating that most tertiary institutions within Plateau were bounded by the directive including: the School of Health Technology, Zawan; College of Education, Gindiri; and School of arts and sciences, Kurgwi. “They are not in a position to resume work, until we resolve key issues with the Federal Government”, he was quoted as saying.

It would be recalled that on Monday, the chairman of the joint workers union, Mr Victor Dawurun stated that the union had decided to suspend the strike action in order to allow renogotiations to take place with the Government. He averred that the decision to suspend the strike was following personal appeals by House of Assembly members and the Head of Service, Mr. Ezekiel Dalyop.

It would also be recalled that at one time during the strike action, the Plateau State Government -through its commissioner for information had threatened to sack lecturers should the fail to return to work -a threat which was later recinded. It would be interesting to see how this debacle is resolved, given the conflicting directives from the leadership of the unions.

by Jerry Ladan

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Plateau State Union to continue strike action despite calls to end it