National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas (NUPENG) workers declared yesterday that it had mobilised for a “full-blown” strike action scheduled to begin tomorrow across the nation.
Chairman of the oil workers union in South West, Tokunbo Korodo, who declared this yesterday evening, vowed that the indefinite action by Petroleum Tankers’ Drivers (PTD) wing of NUPENG would ground activities at all oil depots nationwide.
Stating that the doors of his association were still open for the Federal Government, Korodo lamented the inaction of government’s representatives to intervene in the issue that led to the strike.
“It is quite unfortunate that the only language that the government understands is strike,” he said.
"Up till now, nobody has reached out to us and we have been talking about the inhuman treatment being meted to our members for a long time.
The stage we are now is that we have mobilised all our members and no single tanker driver will work as from Monday,” he declared. “It going to be a total action and by the time it is Monday, there will be no going back,” he added.
“Our doors are opened for talks with the government but it is quite unfortunate that this is the only language they understand,” he stressed. The PTD arm of NUPENG, it would be recalled, had on Friday declared that it would commence a nationwide strike on Monday.
NUPENG’s President, Mr Igwe Achese, announced this in a signed communiqué in Lagos, at the end of its Central Working Committee (CWC) meeting held at the union’s secretariat in Yaba.
The communiqué said the strike would draw the attention of the Federal Government and other stakeholders to some unresolved issues bordering on the welfare of workers, such as bad roads, poor remuneration, insecurity and the alleged excesses of some security agencies.
“The CWC-in-Session considers inhumane, the refusal of the National Association of Transport Owners (NARTO) to commence negotiation with the union for the renewal of the expired Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) on the working conditions of our Tanker Driver members in the PTD branch, after several appeals and even an ultimatum.
“The CWC-in-Session, therefore, resolves to give full backing to any industrial action the members in this sector might decide to take with effect from Monday, April 3, 2017.
“To avert the pains and discomfort the action might cause, the CWC-in-Session calls on the Federal Government to urgently intervene and apprehend the unfortunate situation, to enable NARTO meet its obligations to tanker drivers,” the communiqué said.
The communiqué also called on the National Assembly to urgently pass the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), in order to tackle all the issues of corruption plaguing the oil sector.
It also called for the commercialisation of the operations of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), as well as the turn-around-maintenance for the refineries, to increase local production and reduce the importation of petroleum products.
The communiqué commended the efforts of the federal government to encourage operators of illegal refineries to be integrated into the establishment of modular refineries. The union also vowed to resist any attempt to increase the pump price of petrol.
New Telegraph
