LAGOS—MARITIME Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) has given the government one week to rescind its decision to sack 10, 000 of the 13, 000 workforce of the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA), as part of the planned conscessioning of the port in line with government reforms programme in the port, failing which the union will not only withdraw its earlier support for the ports reform, but also, can no longer guarantee industrial peace in the nation’s ports.
Transport Minister, Abiye Sekibo, at a press briefing in Abuja had said no fewer than 10,000 workers of NPA would be retrenched as part of government reform exercise in the ports.
President-General of MWUN, Comrade Onikoalese Irabor weekend told journalists that the government had poured fuel in the ports and that all that workers would do was to assist government with igniting the fire.
He alleged that the planned sacking of workers was a World Bank agenda as government had before now consistently assured the leadership of the union and workers that the reform exercise would not involve sacking of workers, not to talk of almost all the entire workforce in NPA and vowed that the union would resist the planned retrenchment.
He said: "Government has consistently assured us that the resolution to reform the ports will not affect the workers that is why we supported it. If now the government has changed its position and the entire workers are to be sacked, then, we are withdrawing our support. Down sizing 75 % of workers will be resisted. Supposing there would be going to retrenchment, is that a forum to announce it without informing the stakeholders, especially the union? What has happened to the reports of a technical committee set by the government to look at issues raised by stakeholders.
We won’t join government in this deceit. What about the severance packages of those to be affected as earlier discussed? In all privatisation carried out by the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), at no time did BPE come out with such negative decision. So, we are opting out from supporting the port reforms. We are ready to go to battle over this matter. It is the World Bank that has this agenda and we will not accept such recommendation. The World Bank is not our employer and we will not allow them to destroy this country. We have been considering the strategic nature of our ports as a gateway to the nation’s economy, hence our support, but now they are going beyond our expectation".
