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26 July, 2005
After one strike ultimatum given in March to Nigeria’s oil industry was lifted to conduct further talks, affiliates NUPENG and PENGASSAN are prepared now to take three-day strike action beginning 11 April. Talks broke off 30 March between the two unions and several global oil companies and their contractors and mediation is being done by the country’s Ministry of Labour and Productivity.
At issue is the ever increasing number of expatriate workers entering Nigeria’s oil sector, a fact that shatters set quota levels. The two unions also list among issues casualisation, deductions in worker salaries to fund pension benefits, and Nigeria’s downstream restructuring programme which already has brought 4,700 redundancies. NUPENG and PENGASSAN members are wearing red shirts and other red items in the days leading up to the planned 11 April action.