Breaking! NJIC: Dockworkers dare terminal operators, to shut down ports on Wednesday
Breaking! NJIC: Dockworkers dare terminal operators, to shut down ports on Wednesday
Segun Oladipupo
Dockworkers Branch of the Maritime Workers’ Union of Nigeria (MWUN) has issued one week ultimatum to shut down ports operations nationwide over failure of the Seaport Terminal Operators to sign the National Joint Industrial with Dockworkers
The union alleged unnecessary delay tactics by the concessionaires.
Our correspondent gathered that the NJIC has not been signed for one year and three months.
Dockworkers Branch President, Comrade Tajudeen Ibrahim Ohize who made the declaration on Wednesday in a meeting with workers and representatives of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), noted that the terminal operators have failed to give reasons for the delay and workers could no longer tolerate the delay tactic.
The dockworkers president said “We have the way we do our things even as the PG respects stakeholders and he accepts them
“Sir, the few weeks you are telling us cannot work because we already have our deadline, of nothing is done on Wednesday, we will withdraw all the services ot oir workers throughout Nigeria
“We have been patient enough. If we say we want to do something,we will do it. It is because of the leadership of our PG that you see the peace we all enjoy in the port today. In the history of the industry,what is happening presently has cancer happened. Before Wednesday, if nothing is done, we will withdraw our services,” he declared.
Earlier, the Deputy Director, Maritime Labour Services of NIMASA, Raymond Irekhore had appealed to the union leaders that in few weeks time, something would be done even as he extoll d the virtues of the PG for his efforts in fighting for the welfare of workers at the four branches of the union.
The President General of the union, Comrade Adewale Adeyanju who supervised the engagement of workers and the NIMASA officials, also gave a nod to the action taken by the Dockworkers Branch President
He simply said, “The branch president has spoken and all I need to do is to endorse what he has said even as he hit the table with the gavel in endorsement of the declaration.
Who am I to tell the workers not to issue seven days ultimatum when things are not right with the workers?”
Speaking earlier, the branch president said that the CBA expired in May, last year but a committee was set up and later came up with a sound proposal but the terminal operators kept sending representatives that have no mandates to the meeting
Lucky Olombeni, MWUN representative in NIMASA, knocked the concessionaires for coming up with flimsy excuses of cargo drought at the port
He said, “They came up with the gimmick that the ports are dry. One of the terminal operators said there was no work and we did monthly analysis and what we got from the terminal showed that what they spend on workforce is less than four percent.
“It was after the analysis that the negotiation commenced. The terminal operators were always represented by the people who do not have mandates.
“For more than one year now, they have been dilly-dallying.”
