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18 September, 2006
Nigeria’s two oil workers’ unions, PENGASSAN and NUPENG, suspended a three-day warning strike after day two on 14 September. The unions received assurances from the government and its oil ministry that security concerns along the Niger Delta and other grievances would be addressed.
The assurances included establishing a commission to investigate the kidnapping and death last month of PENGASSAN member Nelson Ujeya, who was killed in a hail of gunfire by a military task force as he was about to be released.
Meeting in a joint National Executive Committee (NEC) session on 14 September in Abuja, leaders of the two unions requested that 20,000 Nigerian oil and gas workers return to their jobs the following day after government officials promised earnest dialogue to find lasting solutions to security matters and other concerns. The first such discussion forum will be held 21 September.
The strike on 13 and 14 September caused domestic disruptions as fuel depots shut, petrol stations closed, and fuel tanker lorries stayed off roads. Oil marketing companies in Lagos, Abuja, Warri, and Port Harcourt all stopped business. The strike also hampered oil and gas exploration and production facilities, although some offshore oil production and crude exports were allowed to continue.
Besides the concerns over security, in which the government has failed to provide a safe and peaceful work environment, PENGASSAN and NUPENG seeks an honest and transparent process on the privatisation of state-owned assets. They cite the recent sale of the Eleme Petro Chemical Ltd. (EPCL) refinery in Port Harcourt and how the facility was under-valued and sold to a start-up company with little experience in the petrochemical business. (In meetings with Nigerian Minister of Petroleum Resources, Dr. Edmund Daukoru, on 13 September, the NEC did receive a commitment for work guarantees for all current staff of EPCL.)
Other demands of the two ICEM-affiliated unions include social commitments that jobs and skills development will occur in the country’s oil patch for young Nigerians. They also demand strict adherence to past agreements made by energy companies and the government on expatriate quotas in the oil, gas, and related industries. The unions also object to merging the Petroleum Training Institute into the University of Benin.
PENGASSAN and NUPENG demands must now be met or further and longer strikes will occur in the immediate future. The short warning strike last week achieved the unions’ objective to gain the government’s attention to the serious security concerns that oil and gas workers in Nigeria face.