By Victor Ahiuma-Young
ABUJA—NATIONAL Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, said yesterday that it has withdrawn fuel supplies to Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, to press home the union’s demand that government should immediately repair dilapidated roads across the country, among others.

President of NUPENG, Comrade Igwe Achese, said the strike was targeted at government officials in Abuja who do not know how the rest of Nigerians are suffering in terms of bad roads, which he said had claimed the lives of many NUPENG members.

The oil workers are also agitating against non-release of the draft report of the Standing Committee on Industrial Relations matters in the oil and gas industry mandated to draft a manual of procedure to guide contract staffing and outsourcing for adoption and implementation. They are also demanding that all oil companies and their Labour and service contractors should put in place verifiable conditions of service for all Labour and service contract workers with well defined terminal benefits.

He said the union decided against national strike in order not to punish ordinary Nigerians in other part of the country except Abuja, the seat of power so that they could sit up and do the right thing.

The industrial action followed the expiration of a 21-day ultimatum issued government by the leaders of the union.
Though Vanguard gathered that a meeting with government representatives could be held today, the union said the action must go on for government to address its grievances.

A 21-day ultimatum issued by the leaders of NUPENG for government to address the union’s grievances expired yesterday with little or no evidence that government has addressed the concerns of NUPENG members.

It will also be recalled that leaders of the union under the aegis of the National Administrative Council, NAC, at a  meeting in Ibadan,  Oyo state, among others, “considered the state of our roads, particularly the Port Harcourt – Aba Expressway which has failed at several points and has turned to a pool of water and death trap where tankers are trapped, fall and get burnt, resulting in the death of our members and loss of property.

The NAC in Session also condemned the slow pace of work along the East West road, and poor rehabilitation of public highways in the South Eastern States and the connecting roads to the Northern parts of the country amongst others.

According to the union “the bad state of the roads has made distribution of petroleum products difficult and endanger the lives of our members with untold hardship and avoidable accidents and deaths. The NAC in Session reviewed the practice of casualisation and contract staffing and concludes that it has become an endemic phenomenon in the oil and gas industry.

The multinational oil companies, Nigeria Liquified Natural Gas (NLNG) and all the companies in the oil and gas industry have virtually contracted out all their core jobs positions in the guise of outsourcing, to labour and service contractors without these contractors giving the contract workers job security and conditions of service.

The efforts of the leadership of the Union to negotiate Collective Bargaining Agreement for the Labour and Service Contract workers in the industry and to implement all signed communiqués/agreements with stakeholders in the industry have been frustrated by the management of Shell Petroleum Development Company Limited and Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited while only Nigeria Agip Oil Corporation, Total Exploration & Production Nigeria Limited and Chevron Nigeria Limited have encouraged the formation of Contractors Fora for the purpose of negotiation as the best practice.

The Union cannot continue to fold its hands and watch its members humiliated, victimized, denied union rights and their appointments terminated during contract renewal processes without payment of any humane terminal benefit.”