Fuel scarcity looms as oil workers begin strike July 7

Another fuel scarcity looms as Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has instructed its members to put down their tools from July 7 and proceed on a strike action.

The workers were given the directive via a memo dated July 4 and the planned action is expected to affect all oil installations, offices, sites and production facilities.

The Lagos, Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna zones of the union have been ordered to begin the sensitisation of its members on the details of the impending strike.

Acting general secretary, Lumumba Okugbawa, PENGASSAN, in a statement, said that all sub-sectors of the oil and gas industry in the country would be affected by the strike.
The union said the planned strike is due to the Federal Government’s inability to honour agreements contained in a May 12, 2016 communiqué.

On June 19, PENGASSAN had threatened to embark on a strike action over the sack of some of its members and it gave the Federal Government a seven-day ultimatum to intervene.

Emmanuel Ojugbana, Public Relations Officer of PENGASSAN, had said, “Despite the agreement that employers should put on hold redundancy in the industry, some managements such as Fugro, Universal Energy, Frontier Services and Petrostuff went ahead to sack many of our members including key union officers and national officer.”

“I want to reiterate our demands that the Federal Government and the concern organisations, including H15, IEME Chevron, Universal Energy, Chevron Contracts Tecon and Avion Oil and Fugro should resolve the critical industrial relation issues in their companies; particularly in the recent retrenchment in Fugro and Petrostuff should be reversed.”

“Let us state unequivocally that industrial peace in the oil and gas sector will not be guaranteed if these issues, especially the retrenchment in Fugro, are not resolved within seven (7) days effective Monday, June 20, 2016.”

The seven-day ultimatum ended on Wednesday, June 27.

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