Strike: NUPENG, FG, Dangote meeting deadlocked
ABUJA– THE meeting between the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers Union, NUPENG, and the Dangote Group ended in a deadlock
The meeting which was on the instance of the Minister of Labour and Employment, Muhammad Maigari Dingyadi, could not amicably agree on some of the demands of the Union.
Though, it was said that the Dangote refinery had agreed that workers at its refinery and petrochemicals should join NUPENG, a source in the meeting said that the drafting of the Memorandum of Understanding, MoU was the cause of disagreement.
According to the source, representatives of the Dangote refinery allegedly tried to insert some clauses which the company would explore to deal with workers if they embark on strike.
The disagreement culminated in the NUPENG delegation and the NLC representatives storming out of the meeting twice.
Briefing journalists after the stalemate, the acting General Secretary of the NLC, Comrade Benson Upah accused the representative of the Dangote refinery of unruly behavior and walking out on the minister and the labour.
He said: “The representative of the Dangote refinery walked out on the Honourable Minister and the organized labour even when we bent backwards to accommodate his uncompromising behavior, he still did what he had to do, so we are left with no other option than to do the needful, the action continues.
“Whenever the representative of Dangote refinery sees the need for a meaningful dialogue, we are ready. We are ready any time even this night if he changes his mind and comes back, that he is ready for discussion we are here, that’s the reason why we are here.”
Also speaking, the NUPENG President said: “The action of labour is for the interest of Nigerians, we cannot stand and see an investor whose main purpose is to come and enslave Nigerians, he cannot take us back to the dark days of slavery.
“Nigerians have wished him so well than to enslave them. So it’s unfortunate that this point in time, we are having an investor whose main purpose is to say that there can’t be union in his establishment. He wants to monopolise the entire system and even to monopolise workers, this we said no and it cannot happen in our time.”
The Minister of Labour confirmed that there was a stalemate but promised that no stone would be left unturned to see amicable resolution of the disagreement.
He said: “The issue is that we have not been able to reach a final agreement on this matter because we had a stalemate. We are trying to resolve the issues but it was getting late, most of them were on their way to Lagos this night so we had to call it off till tomorrow. We are confident maybe by tomorrow we should be able to resolve the issues.
“I want appeal to everybody to please try to maintain peace.”
Present at the conciliatory meeting that started about 5:05 pm but ended very late were the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Rt. Hon. Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, the representative of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, NMDPRA.
The Dangote refinery was represented by Sayyu Dantata and Otunba Jibrin, while NUPENG was led to the meeting by its President, Williams Akporeha and its General Secretary, Afolabi Olawale.
The Trade Union Congress was represented by its Secretary General, Dr. Nuhu Toro and Shehu Mohammed, while the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, had in attendance its acting Secretary, Comrade Benson Upah, the assistant Secretary, Onyeka Chris, Echezona Azuzu, Opaluwa simon among others.
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