The Federal government has summoned the Dangote Group and members of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas NUPENG, to a meeting on Monday, September 8, in a bid to halt fuel crises that may arise from industrial action by the NUPENG.
Muhammad Dingyadi, Minister of Labour and Employment, in a statement signed by Patience Onuoha, the ministry’s head of information, appealed to NUPENG to suspend its planned nationwide strike and urged the Nigeria Labour Congress to withdraw its “red alert” issued in solidarity with the oil workers.
The Minister expressed fears that any further disruption in the petroleum sector would cause more severe economic hardship and significant revenue losses for the government.
Recall that the NUPENG had announced plans to commence strike from Monday, 8 September, over allegations of unfair labour practices by the Dangote Refinery and Petrochemical Company.
The Nigeria Labour Congress NLC had also issued ultimatum earlier to support the NUPENG action if the federal government fails to intervene to call Dangote Group to order.
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The current crisis came on the back of the directives by Dangote Group, to the newly recruited drivers, operating the newly acquired compressed natural gas (CNG) tankers, forbidding them from joining the NUPENG.
The Nigeria Labour Congress NLC, issued ” Red Alert” on Saturday , in a statement signed by Joe Ajaero, President of the NLC, calling for ” the immediate unionization of not just Dangote Refinery but all the other entities within the group.”
The NLC, in the statement, said it stands in solidarity with its affiliate, the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and condemned what it described as ” crude and dangerous anti-union practices, monopolistic agenda, and indicant industrial relationships strategies of the Dangote Group.
The NLC stated that such policies by ” Dangote and his associates are directly violating Section 40 of the Nigerian Constitution, the Labour Act, and ILO Conventions 98 and 87 on Freedom of Association and the Right to Organise and Collectively Bargain (ratified by Nigeria in 1960).”
In the ultimatum, the NLC demands the “immediate unionization of not just Dangote Refinery but all the other entities within the group.
The NLC also placed the entire Nigerian workers, State Councils and industrial unions in Nigeria “on Red Alert.”
It also Promised to ” mobilize for a united front of resistance against the Dangote Group’s anti-worker agenda and support the proposed industrial action by NUPENG.
” We demand that the Federal Government and its regulatory institutions; especially the Nigerian Midstream & Downstream Petroleum Authority; that history will hold them complicit if they continue to look the other way while few individuals privatize the nation’s energy future and enslave its workforce.”
