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7 April, 2008
A pending strike by ICEM Nigerian Affiliate PENGASSAN was called off on 26 March after Mobil Oil Nigeria Plc. made promises in a high-level meeting before the Nigerian Labour Minister in Abuja. The nationwide strike by the white-collar oil workers union was called a week earlier, after Mobil Oil – 100% owned by US-based ExxonMobil – took advantage of a restructuring to sack over 100 PENGASSAN union leaders.
Union General Secretary Bayo Olowoshile told the ICEM at the weekend that a number of understandings were made by the two sides before the Labour Minister, including reinstatement of the unionists. Although those PENGASSAN members are not yet back on their jobs, their salaries continue to be paid.
PENGASSAN General-Secretary Bayo Olowshile
The dispute in the downstream sector surfaced in early March when local managers failed to show up for an industry-wide mediation session over work practices and severance procedures. That meeting was attended by other refiners in the downstream sector. In the following days, Mobil Nigeria began discharging the unionists.
The ICEM intervened on behalf of its Nigerian affiliate with a letter to ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson demanding that the PENGASSAN union leaders, including the National Treasurer, a zonal Financial Secretary, and all shop stewards and bargaining committee members at Mobil Nigeria, be reinstated.
In part, the 11 March letter charged the company with “using the restructuring to deliberately target PENGASSAN members and representatives for job redundancy. Management has more than doubled the number of redundancies from the original numbers in order to eliminate the trade union and its members, which is illegal and an affront to the security and prosperity of Nigeria.
Tillerson later visited Nigeria and President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua on 28 March on proposed construction of a 100,000 barrel-per-day natural gas to petrol plant. A day earlier, Mobil Oil Human Resources Manager Udom Inoyo responded to the ICEM intervention. He stated the company is committed “to working closely with PENGASSAN within normal internal channels of communication to resolve the (severance) issue.”
Olowoshile said that the union was now in a wait-and-see stance, pending deliverance on pledges made during the 28 March meeting in Abuja.