Nigeria’s petroleum and gas workers have issued a notice of a three-day warning strike starting Monday, over longstanding labour dispute, raising the spectre of nationwide fuel crisis as workers have been ordered to stop products at the depots.
The Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, said it will end the warning strike on Wednesday after when it will embark on an “indefinite” industrial action of its demands are not met.
This is contained in a statement signed by NUPENG’s General-Secretary, Isaac Aberare, on Sunday in Lagos.
The statement said that the workers were going on strike over alleged unfair labour practices by some major oil companies in the country.
“The strike is also to protest the refusal of NARTO to implement the signed collective bargaining agreement with the petroleum tanker drivers.
“We are also unhappy over the bad state of roads across the nation, ” the statement said.
The statement said that all efforts by the Federal Ministry of Labour to intervene in the issue three weeks ago had failed.
It said that the oil multinationals had failed to implement the agreement reached for a truce brokered by the Minister of Labour, Emeka Wogu.
The statement alleged that the union’s call for a stakeholders meeting in the oil and gas sector to address the situation had also been ignored.
It directed all members of NUPENG at the various depots to stop loading petroleum products for the next three days.
“Members in all the branches in the country must also follow suit,’’ the statement said.
It said that if after the three-day strike, nothing was done to address the situation, NUPENG would be forced to embark on an indefinite nationwide strike.
NAN
