Oil workers under the aegis of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association on Friday threatened a fresh strike over a labour crisis with the management of Belbop and Conoil Plc.
The President of the Trade Union Congress, Peter Esele, and other top labour leaders, who issued the warning at a press conference in Lagos on Friday, said it would embark on the strike if the crisis was not resolved within 14 days.
�We are directing all our zones and the unit officers to sustain the on-going embargo on conoil operations Nationwide. We wish to put the entire public on notice to be prepared for another nationwide hiccups in the oil and gas industry,� the union leaders said.
But Conoil management said that the strike would be averted as it would work to address issues raised by the workers.
Esele said the briefing was to draw the attention of Nigerians to the anti-union posture of the Belbop/Conoil consortium and its continued insistence on exploiting, marginalising and degrading its workers.
He said, �The management of Belbop/Conoil has consistently breached, reneged and frustrated all efforts at fostering internal consultation, negotiation, dialogue and dispute resolution mechanisms on labour and management issues; and indeed every intervention and directive of the Federal Ministry of Labour towards a lasting and enduring resolution of all industrial relations in the company.
�Belbop/Conoil management has continued to show effrontery and disdain to the intervention efforts by the honourable minister of labour and productivity, the state security chiefs, staging a walkout at meetings and aborting all negotiations and agreements reached in line with statutory resolution process�
The TUC president identified some other anti-labour actions of the company as non-implementation of and non-compliance with the clause of 2005 staff collective agreement, and arbitrary cut by 85 per cent of the work force in complete circumvention of the staff collective agreement and the statutory provisions.
Meanwhile, the Head, Corporate Communication, Conoil, Mr.Azeez Abiodun, debunked the allegations of the union, saying that the matter would be resolved before the deadline given by the workers.
�There is no problem. The management of Conoil will not take issues with the labour union because we are partners in progress. We are sure that in the next couple of days, the matter will be resolved and all things will go back to normal. The public has nothing to worry about,� he said in an interview with our correspondent.
Oct62007