No going back on tanker drivers’ strike – NUPENG

The Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) has said there is no going back on its nationwide strike scheduled to begin today (Monday) by its Petroleum Tanker Drivers ( PTD) branch.
This is even as the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Maikanti Baru, at the weekend, engaged the leadership of NUPENG to avert the strike.
Last week, NUPENG President, Comrade Igwe Achese, said the Tanker Drivers (PTD) branch of the union who complained of poor working condition, said the strike would be indefinite.
The announcement was made after the meeting of NUPENG Central Working Committee (CWC) in Lagos.
Achese lamented that all efforts to avert the strike had been ignored by government agencies.
According to him, the strike would have started last Monday, but the national secretariat of NUPENG pleaded with members of the PTD to shelve the action while NUPENG’s leadership sought for government’s intervention.
He said despite all letters, meetings and appeals to government agencies for intervention, nothing positive came out as at last weekend.
Achese contended that the conditions of service of PTD members expired since three years, but their employers, the National Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) had refused to effect a renewal.
He lamented that PTD members had been passing through hardships and other difficulties including threat to their lives to ensure uninterrupted products supplies nationwide.
When asked whether or not there had been an agreement between the government and the union as at Sunday, Achese gave an affirmative “no”, saying “the strike will hold, no going back.”
Also, in a telephone chat with The Daily Times, on Sunday, the South-West Chairman of NUPENG Lagos chapter,‎ Alhaji Tokunbo Korodo‎ said: ‎”We have issues on ground that ranges within the following:
“Expired conditions of services of Tanker drivers since 3 years, National Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) refused to be on d table with us since then claiming high cost of spare parts, diesel and low freight that made them to negotiate with us.
“Bad roads, though we appreciate the efforts of Federal Government in their huge investment on road rehabilitation but efforts should also be directed to the regular routes of tanker drivers that are still bad and this exposes us to hijackers that normally lead to the death of our members or losing their products to them also with non-availability of resting opportunities on the highway for drivers in case of fatigue.
According to Korodo, “The activities of security agencies on the highway, especially Nigeria Civil Defence Corps is unbearable because of illegal arrest of tanker drivers and forcefully breaking the sealed compartment of the truck to take fuel for testing which never happens, instead it’s to extort money from innocent drivers or detain them for days if they refuse to part away with money.
He further stressed that, “the crisis between Capital oil management and NNPC‎ that has led to the closure of loading activities at Capital oil depot which is a serious concern of the union because this has led to the management of Capital Oil, displacing about 2000 members of the union including 1000 tanker drivers in their employment.”
“We hereby call for a quick resolution and reconciliation of the issues to save our members’ jobs, placing them on redundancy.”
However, Korodo said: “These issues were discussed at NUPENG Central Working Committee (CWC)‎ meeting last Friday, March 31th, where PTD branch pleaded with the leadership of the union for strike endorsement since several intervention efforts of the leadership produced no results and finally CWC gave a go ahead to the request of the PTD branch of NUPENG and by Monday, 3 April (today), all tanker drivers nationwide shall boycott or withdraw their services till further notice”.
Recall that NUPENG president, Igwe Achese, in justifying the strike, on Friday, said:
“The CWC-in-Session examined the various complaints and agitations of Petroleum Tanker Drivers members of the union over their deplorable working conditions with regards to poor remuneration, insecurity on the highways, poor state of roads, absence of conducive rest places on the highways and the excesses of some security agencies, most especially, the Nigeria Civil Defense Corps.
“The CWC-in-Session considered inhumane, the refusal of National Association of Road Transport Owner (NARTO) to commence negotiation with the union for the renewal of the expired Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) on the working conditions of our Tanker Drivers members in PTD Branch after several appeals and even ultimatum.
“The CWC-in-Session therefore resolved to give full backing to any industrial action the members in this sector might decide to take with effect from Monday, April 3, 2017.
“To avert the pains and discomfort the action might cause, the CWC–in- Session calls on the Federal Government to urgently intervene and apprehend the unfortunate situation to enable NARTO meets its obligations to Tanker Drivers,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Group General Manager in charge of Group Public Affairs Division of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mr. Ndu Ughamadu, at the weekend, said that the Group Managing Director of the Corporation, Dr. Maikanti Baru, had engaged the leadership of NUPENG to avert the strike.
Ughamadu said with Baru’s personal intervention, the issues would be resolved amicably.
“We are engaging them. Few days ago, the Group Managing Director of NNPC, Dr. Maikanti Baru was in touch with the leadership of the union. Hopefully, with his intervention, it will be resolved,” Ughamadu explained.