Adams Oshiomhole, Former Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) president and senator, has faulted the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) for escalating its dispute with Dangote Refinery into a nationwide shutdown of oil facilities, describing the action as hasty and unfair to other workers.
Speaking in an interview with Arise Television on Friday, Oshiomhole said unions must defend workers without inflicting broader economic hardship.
“I think that in seeking to protect a particular set of workers, you do not then risk the jobs of several other workers. When you are pursuing a dispute, the tools you deploy must be such that they do not undermine other people’s jobs,” he said.
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He criticised the oil union’s decision to halt operations at facilities of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) and other firms over alleged anti-labour practices at Dangote Refinery.
“I suddenly witnessed long queues at filling stations and people came to me to ask, ‘why are we not at work today, what has happened to the oil industry?’ And the reason was that PENGASSAN had decided that NNPC be shut down, several other companies shut down, all because of a problem in one refinery,” Oshiomhole said.
Drawing from his time as NLC president, he stressed that disputes should be confined to the employer in question.
“We had a big battle with Union Bank of Nigeria over their policy on married couples working together. But even when we had the capacity to shut down all the banks, we didn’t,” he recalled.
Oshiomhole also cautioned against rushing into strikes without weighing their broader impact. “In pursuing war, you have to recognise that the tools you deploy must not hurt innocent people, like the tomato sellers who cannot get fuel to move their goods because there is a quarrel between one refinery and one union,” he said.
While affirming the constitutional right to unionise, he urged balance and responsibility from both employers and workers. He added that private investors like Dangote should be allowed time to stabilise before being subjected to intense labour action.
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“An employer has to exist, mature and be strong enough to guarantee good-paying jobs. If you cripple a business before it even finds its feet, you are also destroying the jobs you claim to protect,” Oshiomhole said.
