President Muhammadu Buhari, who doubles as Minister of Petroleum Resources

The Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers NUPENG has graciously extended the initial 14-day ultimatum given to the Federal Government to impress it on some International Oil Companies IOCs operating in the country to address some welfare issues for members or face a nation-wide strike by seven days.

The ultimatum, which took effect on November 15, is expected to elapse on Monday November 29, 2021 but would now terminate on December 6, 2021 due to the seven-day extension.

According to a statement signed by the General Secretary of the union, Comrade Afolabi Olawale Thursday, this extension is sequel to the interventions and engagements with various government agencies and institutions, most especially the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation NNPC, which insisted that the welfare issues raised by the union could not be resolved within the 14 –day deadline given to the affected organisations.

The statement argued that though these issues concerning the welfare of the union members and unfair labour practices by some oil majors are yet to be fully resolved through these engagements, the leadership of the union still needed to exercise more patience and restraint to give the on-going discussions the chances of resolving these issues once and for all.

It reads in part: “The decision of the union to give another seven-day ultimatum should not be misconstrued as a sign of capitulation or weakness but a concrete demonstration of our resolve not to inflict unnecessary pains on Nigerians or create any form of artificial scarcity of petroleum products

“It is our hope that the Federal Government and all other concerned entities will take advantage of the extension to do what is expected of them and save the nation the pains and losses our industrial action would bring. We urge our members to remain calm and await further directives as our solidarity remains constant”.

Recall that the union had in an earlier statement jointly signed by the President of the union, Comrade Williams Akporeha and General Secretary, Comrade Olawale Afolabi, said that the two-week strike notice was part of the resolutions reached at the end of the Special National Delegates Conference of the union convened to amend some clauses of its constitution.

Part of the welfare issues listed include the outstanding short -payment of terminal benefits to members declared redundant by the management of Chevron Nigeria Limited since 2012, insisting that these benefits were in line with the subsisting Collective Bargaining Agreement as at the time the workers were laid off. This fact, according to the union, has been severally established but Chevron management unscrupulously short paid these workers and locked them out of its premises.

The union also listed the issue of the manner Chevron management terminated the employment of contract workers in MUYIDEEN and YKISH, labour contractors allegedly because the affected workers consented to joining the union and that when the employments of these workers who have variously put in between 10 to 20 years in continuous employment were terminated, no money has been paid to them as terminal benefits.

There is also the matter concerning PYRAMIDT workers, who for more than 20 years have been moved from one labour contractor to another without condition of service and union representation or recognition, adding that the struggle for the unionisation of these have spanned several years with workers remaining resolute to be members of NUPENG.

Other grounds for the proposed strike include the issue of contract workers in OML 42 of NPDC, which are being continuously owed salaries and allowances for upwards of eight to 10 months, regretting that every effort to make management of NPDC and the contractors do the right thing to address the pitiable plights of these hapless workers have not received any meaningful attention and actions, among several others.