By Victor Ahiuma-Young and Godfrey Bivbere
MARITIME Workers Union of Nigeria, MWUN, has shut down operations of Maersk Nigeria Limited (MNL) over alleged unfair labour practices and victimisation of Nigerians.

The industrial action which commenced Monday was still on at the time of this report as meeting between the management and leaders of MWUN, on Tuesday to resolve the dispute was still on after over six hours.

Vanguard gathered that besides alleged increasing casualisation of workers and victimasation of Nigerians,  one of the causes of the industrial action was management alleged refusal to recall a workers (name withheld) who was accused of theft last year and was arrested by Police for investigation.

Police investigation was said to have cleared the worker of any wrong doing, but since then, the management was said to have refused to recall the worker.

An official of the union told Vanguard that because of “this and other unfair labour practices especially casualisation and victimisation of Nigerians, we directed the workers to down tools since all efforts to make the management see reasons have been futile.  The strike started yesterday (Monday) and since noon today (Tuesday), our leaders and the management of the Maersk have been meeting to resolve the dispute to no avail.

This is about 7 pm and there is  no solution yet. If at the end of the day, we are not able to resolve the dispute, the industrial action would continue tomorrow (yesterday).”

However, the management of the company is said to have described the industrial action as “illegal on the grounds that no prior notice was given to management.”

Acting Managing Director of Maersk Nigeria Limited, Mr. Glenn MacArtney, was reported to have said: “The situation we have at the moment is that we have approximately 150 of our colleagues made up of both junior and senior staff that want to work but are being prevented from doing so.

This is not an agitation by the staff. Our staff are ready to work and you can see them all around. The vast majority of our colleagues in both the junior and senior cadre came to work this morning ( Tuesday).”

“Strikes are normal if they are done properly, but this wasn’t. No notice of this action was given and it is not a normal strike action. They should call this action off and if they have genuine grievances, we will be very happy to discuss with them”, Glenn stated, adding that MNL’s management had at no time foreclosed discussions that will improve the welfare of its workers.