Francis Tim Mbom
4 September 2008
The Minister of Finance, Esimi Menye, has denied a probable strike action at the Cameroon Shipyard and Industrial Engineering Company Limited.
Esimi was speaking to the press after a meeting held on Wednesday, August 27 at the Limbe Shipyard site with the Director of the company, Antoine Bikoro'o, the Board Chair of the company and other officials of his Ministry.
The Minister's denial was based on the fact that the government has already taken measures to redress the financial difficulties plaguing the engineering outfit."I don't think the workers will go on strike because the government has already taken measures to financially support the company and ensure that the work begun this far goes on smoothly," he said.
The Minister said they equally discussed the future of the Shipyard Project and possibilities of boosting it."The Board Chair, the General Manager and his technical team have presented to us details on the conduct of the work at the yard, the problems of finance and the future of the project," the Minister said.
It was, however, rumoured that disgruntled former trainees of the Shipyard Company had been groomed and readied for integration into the company by the sacked General Manager, Zaccheus Forjindam. But not long after taking office, Bikoro'o fired them.
The Limbe Shipyard problems, since May, have been worsened by a series of high profile resignations|. The rumour mill also has it some of the workers have been planning to go on strike to demand for the payment of their salaries.
On the issue of the resignations, Esimi said it was but normal."You cannot stop someone from resigning," he said.He further said that if in future the staff who resigned return, the company would do to them whatever they think best, insinuating that they could be reconsidered.
Work In Progress
Despite the rather gloomy atmosphere at the yard, there was an air of business going on with workers doing repair works on some oil rigs. At the entrance, work was equally in progress on two other structures.
The whole shipyard project is valued at FCFA 85 billion or more. But only a little over 52 percent of the work as the Minister said, has been completed.
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