Employees of shipping companies in all port formations today began an indefinite strike over low pay and allegedly dehumanizing working conditions, AS ORDERED BY THE LEADERSHIP OF THE Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria, or MWUN.
Additionally, all dry ports, jetties, and terminals are participating in the strike.
If the shipping companies fail to address the workers’ complaints, it was understood that Dockworkers, Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, workers, and Seamen/Nigerian Inland Water Ways, NIWA, and Water Transportation employees would join tomorrow in solidarity.
This occurred as the Nigerian Shippers Council, NSC, called today’s meeting of interested parties in a last-ditch effort to find a solution and prevent the industrial crisis from forcing the closure of all of the country’s ports.
Vanguard has been informed that the stakeholders’ meeting will take place at the NSC facilities at 8.30 am.
Regardless of the meeting called by NSC, it was decided at the strategic meeting of leaders of MWUN and officials of the Shipping branch of MWUN, including plant officials of each shipping company, that operations of all shipping companies must cease as of right now and continue until further notice.
Remember that Prince Adewale Adeyanju, President General of MWUN, stated at a press conference on Thursday in Lagos that the strike was caused by low pay for employees and the refusal of shipping companies doing business in Nigeria to agree on a set of minimum standards for working conditions and employee compensation.
Adeyanju bemoaned the fact that the NSC appeared to have completely lost control and regulatory authority over the shipping firms who had disobeyed federal government interventions in the matter.
He claimed that the issue had been going on for six years and that the shipping companies had refused to set a minimum standard for their employees.
He claimed that the former minister of transportation, Muazu Sambo, had asked the NSC to mediate the negotiations between the MWUN and the Shipping Association of Nigeria SAN.
Meeting after meeting had been held at the Executive Secretary’s request, but the SAN’s attitude is not particularly noteworthy.
We attended the meeting on Wednesday, and things did not go well. Even the Ministry of Transportation, which organized the meeting, is embarrassed by this.As things stand, the pay in the shipping industry is equivalent to a death sentence, and the SAN is avoiding its obligations.
“This issue is not new to any of the parties involved; there had been ultimatums and attempts to convince us otherwise. We always consider our options due to the sensitivity of the ports. We cannot, however, continue to issue ultimatums in the current situation.
“The former Minister did not err in asking the Shippers Council to oversee this negotiation process as an economic regulator. We are moving in this direction due to SAN’s carefree attitude.