FG, PENGASSAN Parley Flops

The highly anticipated meeting between leaders of sister oil workers’ unions and government representatives over the grievances that led to three day warning strike failed to hold on schedule yesterday following the failure of the striking workers’ delegation to turn up.

The meeting was quickly fixed to address disputes that threaten fuel supply in the domestic market after the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) and sister National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) declared a three day warning strike to demand re-absorption of sacked employee of Total Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited, passage of Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) and refurbishment of the local refineries among other things.

The call for strike had sparked off market sentiments and panic buying and stocking of fuel by consumers who feared imminent scarcity.

Consequently, the strike which was greeted with public indignation was sharply criticized as politically motivated to build intrigues into the 2015 elections, timed to bring suffering to millions of Nigerians that traditionally travel in the yuletide period and whipped up to influence internal conflicts in private oil firm.

Checks by The UNION showed that the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, who had called off her trip to attend the ongoing 16th Ministerial Conference of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) in Doha, Qatar, had waited till evening of yesterday without receiving delegates of the striking workers.

Calls to the spokesman of PENGASSAN, Mr. Babatunde Oke, to ascertain the cause of the delay of his team in attending the meeting were not taken.

Officials of the Ministries of Labour and Petroleum Resources who spoke on the issue said the delegation from the two ministries had been waiting for the leaders of the oil workers since early yesterday to no avail, expressing discomfort at the conduct of the labour leaders.

An official of the Petroleum Ministry who spoke on the conditions of anonymity pointed out that the issues raised by the unions were outside the purview of the government, saying that the passage of the PIB was one issue that government has been driving for nearly a decade.

He said that instead on holding Nigerians to ransom, the oil workers should take their case to the National Assembly where the billed has stalled since 2005.

According to him, the oil workers had good opportunity to join the Petroleum Ministry and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in pressurizing the National Assembly to pass the bill but unfortunately had to wait until the legislators have dispersed for political campaigns.

He advised the workers to wait for the National Assembly to reconvene and promised that the Petroleum Ministry would support every positive move to get the PIB passed.

On the issue of refineries, he said government had awarded several contracts for the rehabilitation and upgrade of the refineries, advising the oil workers to help address the problems that issues that work against the reactivation of the plants. He said government was open to cooperate with the oil workers to evolve plans and strategies that would lead to realization of national aspirations in the petroleum industry.

“That is why the PIB was conceived in the first place,” he said.

On the dispute between one of the union’s members and her employers, our source said it would be unfair for the oil workers to subject fellow citizens to suffering because of internal labour dispute in a private company, adding that there was nothing government could do about the issue.

“You must not go on strike for everything. There are issues that you could resolve diplomatically, and there are ones that could be resolved in court of law. That is why these institutions are there,” he said.

In a separate response however, Total E&P Nigeria Limited (TEPNG) deplored statements attributed to PENGASSAN that the three day warning strike is in part designed to press “for the reinstatement of the National Zonal Secretary of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, Mrs. Elo who was sacked by Total E&P Nigeria Ltd.”

The company stated that the said employee, Mrs Elo, was sacked for resisting routine transfer after collecting nine million Naira transfer allowance and being absent from work for one month.

Spokesman of Total, Mr. Charles Ogan, said the sacked employee was nonetheless paid her full severance packages

“A Labour Dispute process was launched at the Federal Ministry of Labour by PENGASSAN who then declined to pursue this option. TEPNG supports this process which should be allowed to proceed to allow knowledgeable third parties to review the facts and make an informed decision with the participation of all parties,” he said.

Meanwhile, officials of the oil workers’ unions went round yesterday to enforce compliance and deliberately cause fuel scarcity in the market but oil exports were not affected as at last night.

Survey of upstream operations showed that the strike had no effect in oil exploration and production activities as all contractors and operators in the field were working without disruption.

A strike in September caused little disruption in the country, apart from a brief interruption to natural gas supplies to Ghana, which did not suffer shortages as a result.

An oil executive said this strike was not expected to affect output for the same reason that others have not: shutting down oil production is a drastic move that requires large numbers of workers at production sites who are unwilling to go that far.

"It's very difficult to shut them down, and once they do it would take them a week to get them back up. They never do it," he said. "That's the last thing anyone wants."

However, in many major cities, including the main commercial city of Lagos, the capital Abuja, and the oil producing region of Bayelsa, long queues formed for fuel because of fears the strikes will cause shortages.

Black market fuel hawkers with jerrycans of smuggled fuel along the roadside filled the shortfall.

"There's no fuel to sell and we can't sell the old stock either because we are not sure when this strike will end," a filling station owner told Reuters in Yenagoa, capital of Bayelsa state.

In central Abuja most fuel stations were shut.