LAGOS—NIGERIA Union of Petroleum and Natural
Gas Workers, NUPENG, and its Petroleum and
Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria,
PENGASSAN, will today begin an indefinite
nationwide strike, to protest the inability of the
government to carry out Turn Around
Maintenance, TAM, of the refineries and reduce
pump prices of petroleum products in line with the
slump in global prices of crude oil.
Other grievances include delay in the passage of
the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB; non-
implementation of the Nigeria Oil and Gas Industry
Content Development, NOGICD, Act to reflect
Nigerians in management positions and expatriate
quota law; appalling state of access roads to
refineries and oil depots’ facilities and insecurity in
the country that has led to the death of members.
Other complaints are appointments in government
agencies in disregards to succession planning,
compulsory deduction from workers’ salaries for
the National Housing Fund, NHF; casualisation and
contract staffing and unfair labour practice by
companies and government agencies.
The grievances also include termination of
appointment of the Port Harcourt Zonal Secretary
of the association by Total Exploration and
Production, Total E&P, Nigeria Limited; retardation
of staff promotion in the Petroleum Technology
Development Fund, PTDF; non-standardisation of
nomenclature and collective bargaining agreement
of the Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Agency, NNRA,
in line with what is obtained in other agencies in the
oil and gas industry and refusal of the management
of Addax/Petrostuff Nigeria Limited and Chevron/
Sudelletra to recall sacked staff.
The oil workers issued a 14-day ultimatum to
government October 31, 2014, threatening that at
the expiration they would no longer issue any
notice to government because the issues had been
protracted and government and other affected
companies had not shown any commitment to
addressing the workers grievances. .
The unions had issued a statement that all levels
of the unions had been fully sensitised and
mobilised for the inevitable industrial actions that
would affect every value chain in the upstream,
midstream and downstream of the oil and gas
industry.
Vanguard gathered that ahead of the strike,
branch leaders of the two unions met at the zonal
levels in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna
and had set up joint monitoring committees to
ensure the strike is effective.
On crude oil theft
On crude oil theft and acts of vandalism, NUPENG
and PENGASSAN alleged high level collaboration of
the security agencies, politicians and highly placed
Nigerians in the buccaneering racket of oil and gas
installations and the resultant crude oil theft,
lamenting that the ugly trend signified a looming
extinction of the oil and gas industry with
attendant job losses.
Vanguard ng.com
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