Leaders of Nigeria’s two oil unions will meet to decide on a strike planned to protest rising insecurity in the Niger Delta, a union official said.
Babatunde Ogun, president of the white-collar Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, said leaders of Pengassan and the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas workers will take the decision at a later date after meeting with the government today.
He said Pengassan members at Total SA’s Nigerian unit who went on strike yesterday in contravention of the union’s order to await further instructions, had no authorization.
“We will meet to give further directives to our members on the way forward,” Ogun said by phone today from Abuja, the Nigerian capital. He spoke shortly after a meeting between the unions and members of the National Assembly seeking to prevent the strike. He did not say when the decision will be taken.
At the local subsidiary of Total Exploration and Production, Pengassan members went on strike yesterday, though the action is not disrupting production activities at the company, officials said. Peter Esele, a former president of the association, said the strike is only in the Port Harcourt office of Total.
“Pengassan members are outside,” he said by phone from Lagos.
Warning Strike
Total workers say this is a three-day warning strike to protest the insecurity in the Niger Delta, home to Nigeria’s oil and gas, where oil workers have been targeted by kidnappers. The Total chapter members of Pengassan went ahead with the strike although the national leadership asked its members Monday to hold back from action while it continued talks with the government.
In an e-mailed statement dated Feb. 9, Total management said it noted “an organized blocking of the gates to our Port Harcourt offices from 6 a.m. till noon.”