It was a sigh of relief for millions of Nigerians across the country, yesterday, as Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) announced the suspension of the nationwide strike it ordered from 12:00am, Monday, December 18, 2017.
The strike which lasted hours had started taking a toll on the motoring public as long queues of vehicles resurfaced at filling stations, extending to highways roads, in major cities, including Lagos, and Abuja, thereby worsening traffic flow.
The strike was called by PENGASSAN to protest what it termed “unfair labour practices and seemingly untameable posture of some indigenous oil and gas companies and marginal field operators,” citing Seconde, an oil firm in particular.
Fortune Obi, national public relations officer of PENGASSAN, speaking, Monday, on the decision to suspend the strike, said it followed the intervention of the labour minister and Department of State Security (DSS).
“Also the management of Neconde has offered a letter of recall to the sacked employees of the company,” Obi said on Monday.
The penchant of oil workers unions in Nigeria to resort to strikes which paralyses the economy to press home every demand or express discontent at every unfavourable action reeks of sheer economic sabotage, analysts have told BusinessDay.
Analysts say internal disagreements between oil companies and their staff should not halt the country’s economy.
“A situation where one of the employers in the sector has decided to relieve certain people from employment and you are now fighting for those people and saying until they take them back, you will proceed on strike without finding why they were relieved, if they were guilty of certain offences or breached their own contracts and give an ultimatum for strike amounts to abuse of power,” says Olu Akinola, a legal expert and managing partner of Stonewaters Lawfirm.
Speaking on the issue, Henry Biose, a petroleum economics and policy researcher with the University of Port Harcourt, said the best practice is for parties to a dispute to come to the negotiation table. “For me, an internal disagreement should not lead to national strike; it is like holding the government to ransom.
“Every company is tailored towards profit making so in a measure of trying to optimise their system by laying off people, the union should only make sure the companies are following the prescribed labour laws,” said Biose.
But Nigeria’s oil workers see strikes as the only solution to labour disputes. Since 2015, these oil unions have embarked upon a half a dozen industrial actions and none has been completely resolved. Strikes are often planned at peak demand period, usually towards the end of year to complete the shakedown, BusinessDay gathers.
Analysts also attribute part of the blame to the government who has not shown commitment to keeping agreements in some disputes.
“Government should also honour their own obligation but when strikes are called for this kind of reason (internal labour dispute), government can go to court to compel them to do perform their duties,” said Akinola.
Meanwhile the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has embarked upon a fuel buying spree, offering a potential respite to European refineries and storage terminals threatened by an oversupply that has battered margins.
Shipping and trade sources told Reuters that imports of gasoline to West Africa, including Nigeria, from Europe were expected to top 1 million tonnes in December, compared with 700,000 tonnes in October and roughly 800,000 tonnes in November.
The strike had led to panic buying of petroleum products across the country, with many filling stations resorting to hoarding thereby creating artificial scarcity.
Checks by BusinessDay in Lagos metropolis on Monday morning showed that some filling stations especially around Alimosho and Ojo local government areas of the state had started selling above the regulated price of N145 per litre just as hoodlums took advantage of the rowdy situations to demand bribe from motorists who were seen in fierce struggle to gain access into such filling stations.
The suspension of the strike is seen a relief to the motoring public and travellers who were already feeling the pain, for the hours the action lasted.
PENGASSEN largely consists of oil workers in upstream companies while the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) operates in the downstream sector but a disagreement with either the government or any company in either sector can lead to collective strike action.
JOSHUA BASSEY
