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Monday, June 10, 2013
Nigeria’s main oil workers union, Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), issued a 14-day strike notice to the federal government on June 6 over unresolved disputes with foreign operators in the country. NUPENG says it sees growing unfair labor practices in Shell’s Nigerian unit SPDC, Chevron, and Agip’s Nigerian operations.
NUPENG’s national president Igwe Achese, speaking at a meeting of the Central Working Committee (CWC) of the union in Lagos, warned of an indefinite nationwide strike should government fail to convey a stakeholders’ national conference to address labor issues in the oil and gas industry at the expiration of the ultimatum. Igwe accused foreign operators of inflicting inhuman treatment on Nigerians.
Agip workers are already on strike in Port Harcourt and the government has been warned it will spread to other cities and other companies.
He contended that if the agreement reached with the multinational companies at a meeting called by the Minister of Labor and Productivity Chief Emeka Wogu in May 2012, was implemented, these issues would have been resolved.
Igwe accused Agip Oil of terminating the appointment of 93 contract workers that had worked between 25 and 35 years, without benefits despite a directive to the contrary issued by the Petroleum Ministry. He also said that Chevron converted workers from contract labor to service labor and refused the workers the right to collective bargaining agreement and to unionize.
He said according to a PANA article: “We can no longer fold our arms and allow fellow Nigerians to be enslaved in their country. Before now, Chevron had what was called the big six contractors paying over 1,800 workers. Some of the workers had worked for over 30 years and were unionized. Suddenly, Chevron terminated their appointments and said it was rolling them over.
“Before we knew what was happening, Chevron balkanized the six contractors into 16 contractors and brought back these workers under service labor, refusing them to be unionized and denying them other rights.
“Under the service labor, their jobs are no longer safe, meaning they can be sacked any day without notice.”
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