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Nigeria: Nupeng Begins Nationwide Strike
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Vanguard (Lagos)
11 July 2008
Posted to the web 11 July 2008
Victor Ahiuma-Young
NATIONAL Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), yesterday, embarked on a nationwide industrial action to protest the soaring price of diesel and the deplorable condition of the nation's public highways including access roads to the refineries.
The action came at the expiration of a seven-day ultimatum to government to redress the situation. Diesel currently hovers between N150.00 and N170.00 per litre.
The union is lamenting that the deplorable condition of the nation's highways has been responsible for most of the accidents involving its members, leading to loss of lives of drivers, petroleum products, trucks, frequent cases of inferno and destruction of property. The ultimatum given by the Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD) branch of NUPENG was endorsed by the leadership of NUPENG and expired mid-night Wednesday.
Vanguard gathered that a meeting of the leadership of NUPENG with the Group Managing Director of Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on Wednesday failed to sway the oil workers from embarking on the strike.
At press time, the Minster of State for Energy (Petroleum) was also meeting with the leadership of NUPENG to halt the strike. Confirming the commencement of the strike, President of NUPENG, Comrade Peter Akpatason, told Vanguard on telephone that the union had no other choice than to call out its members on strike to press home the union's demands.
He lamented that Wednesday's meeting with NNPC GMD yielded no result because the GMD was talking about dialogue that the union had been engaging in with government for months and even years in cases like the issue of deplorable condition of the nation's highways to no avail.
His words: "I can confirm to you that the strike has begun this morning (yesterday) because our ultimatum to government expired mid-night Wednesday. As nothing has been done to address the issues we raised, we have no choice other than to down tools and withdraw our services."
Also, speaking on the commencement of the strike, Lagos Zonal Secretary of NUPENG, Comrade Tokunbo Korodo, said all lifting of products had been suspended as tanker drivers had been directed to stop loading in all the depots.
According to him, "the strike has started. This is authoritative. It is total. Tanker drivers have been ordered to stop loading and they have stopped loading products in all the depots across the country."
NUPENG had written to the government through the Secretary to Government of the Federation (SGF) and copied the Minister of State for Energy (Petroleum); Minister of Labour and Productivity; Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC); Director-General of State Security Service (SSS) amongst others, urging the government to address the workers' concerns to avoid the industrial action.
The NUPENG President who is also the National Trustee of NLC, had said: "We have since Thursday written to appropriate government agencies to intimate them about the looming industrial unrest occasioned by government's refusal to implement agreements reached with our PTD branch and its officers concerning the soaring diesel price and the deplorable condition of the nation's public highways including access roads to the nation's refineries.
"In the letters which we copied our umbrella body, the NLC, we made the government to understand that NUPENG as a body has not only approved the industrial action being planned by the PTD, we are in total support and are indeed mobilising all our affiliates across country to actually participate in the strike should government fail to positively address the issues raised.
"We have to approve and endorse the action because of the unacceptable role of government officials and petroleum marketers who sustain the price of diesel or AGO (Automotive Gas Oil) that currently hovers between N150.00 and N170.00 per litre across the country. This is completely unacceptable because as it is today, diesel drives the engine of our industry and national development."
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"Another vital issue is the deplorable condition of access roads to the refineries and public highways which has been responsible for most of the accidents involving our members, leading to loss of lives of drivers, petroleum products, trucks, frequent cases of inferno and destruction of property," he said.
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