At Their Mercy

Fri, Jul 5, 2013

By publisher

2 MIN READ

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Motorists agonise as fuel station operators close shop in major towns and cities in Nigeria following a three-day warning strike embarked upon by NUPENG members

|  By Anayo Ezugwu  |  Jul. 15, 2013 @ 01:00 GMT

THE three-day industrial action embarked on by the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, may have been suspended but the suffering and agony Nigerians passed through would live on for a while. The strike which started on July 1, was called off on July 3, after persistent pressure from the government and the masses.

Igwe Achese national president, NUPENG, told Realnews that the decision to end the industrial action was in the interest of the public and the intervention of Andrew Yakubu, group managing director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC. Igwe said if these issues that prompted the strike were not quickly resolved, the union would not give further notice to the government before embarking on an indefinite strike.

He noted that the essence of the warning strike was to bring government to the negotiation table with a view to addressing some critical challenges facing the country’s oil and gas sector. According to him, some of the crucial issues that require urgent government attention include unfair treatment of Nigerian workers by the international oil companies, IOCs, high level of insecurity in Nigeria, bad state of the roads, rising oil theft in the Niger Delta, non-adherence to guidelines on contract staffing, abuse of expatriate quota and the need to evolve policies that conform to international best practices.

The strike was also embarked on to protest the refusal of the Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners, NARTO, to implement the signed collective bargaining agreement with petroleum tanker drivers. He alleged that rather than calling the IOCs to order, the federal government was giving them support.

Meanwhile, the first two days of the strike, witnessed long queues in most of the major cities in the country, while most of the petrol stations in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Lagos, Ibadan, Port Harcourt and other cities were under lock and key.

The NUPENG strike came a few days to the expiration of the ultimatum issued by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association, PENGASSAN, which has also threatened to embark on an indefinite strike, citing anti-labour policies and poor working conditions amongst several other issues.