BREAKING: Maritime Workers Set To Embark On Nationwide Strike

The Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) has issued a seven-day ultimatum to the Federal Government (FG) to compel the International Oil Companies (IOCs) over refusal to allow Stevedoring companies and Dockworkers into their operational areas as required by law in the past eight years.
The MWUN warned that if at the expiration of the ultimatum the union’s demand is not met, all ports operations nationwide would be shut until the union’s demands are met.

The Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) has issued a seven-day ultimatum to the Federal Government (FG) to compel the International Oil Companies (IOCs) over refusal to allow Stevedoring companies and Dockworkers into their operational areas as required by law in the past eight years.

The President-General and Secretary-General of MWUN, Prince Adeyanju Adewale and Felix Akingboye, respectively, made this known in a statement on Friday.

The MWUN warned that if at the expiration of the ultimatum the union’s demand is not met, all ports operations nationwide would be shut until the union’s demands are met.

The union further lamented the alleged silence of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), and ultimately the Federal Government to the non – compliance of the IOCs to extant Stevedoring regulations and the Marine/Government Notice No. 106 on Stevedoring regulations, 2014 issued by the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA.

According to Vanguard, MWUN explained that “the extant stevedoring/ marine notice is the operational guidelines to all dock labour employers and private operators of any work location including Ports, Jetties, Onshore or Offshore Oil and Gas or bonded terminals, inland container depots (ICDs), off-dock terminals, dry ports and platforms.

“The law stipulates that government-appointed and NIMASA registered stevedores and Dockworkers shall be allowed access by the IOCs to the operational areas allocated to them by the NPA.

“We wish to further draw the public attention to the repressive practice of the IOCs by denying our members (Dockworkers), access to their operational areas and consequently, denying the Dockworkers the opportunity to earn wages.

“To worsen the matter, these IOCs have flooded the operational areas with aliens/foreigners at the expense of local workers and in breach of statutory regulations including the Local Content Act, NIMASA and NPA act that prescribe indigenising of the workforce.

“It will be recalled that this matter became worrisome in 2018 which forced the Union to declare a three-day national strike before the intervention of the Ministry of Transportation which summoned a stakeholders’ meeting including the IOCs and the Union. In the end, a communique was reached on how to address the matter.

“It is regrettable that up till now, the content of the communique has not been implemented. It is also very painful and sad that the Federal Government and its agencies especially the Ministry of Transportation and NPA, for the past four years have failed to compel the IOCs to not only comply with the statutory regulations but to also comply with the communique reached at the stakeholders’ meeting of 2018,” the union stated.