The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has said the Federal Government will not succeed in its attempt to “use hunger to force its members back to the classroom.

President of the union, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, made this known when he appeared on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily.

Osadeke said since strike began in February, the Federal Government had withheld its members salaries.

“Our salaries have been withheld. This is the sixth month our salaries have been withheld,” he said.

“They thought that if they hold our salaries for two or three months, we will come begging and say ‘please allow us to go back to work’.

“But as a union of intellectuals, we have grown beyond that. You can’t use the force of hunger to pull our members back, which is exactly what the government is doing.”

ASUU embarked on a warning strike over the alleged refusal of the federal government to keep up with the union’s demands including the implementation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU renegotiation agreement, deployment of UTAS, payment of outstanding arrears of Earned Academic Allowances (EAA), promotion arrears, and the release of withheld salaries of academics.

The Union had on Monday extended the strike by another four weeks, thus dashing the hopes of students to return to school.