Transport Workers Threaten Strike at Onne
From Okon Bassey in Port Harcourt
The heavy trucks branch of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) in Rivers State has threatened to withdraw their services from the Onne Port if the management of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) does not rescind its decision to stop members of the union from using the trailer park located within the Onne Port.
The state chairman of the NURTW, Onne Port branch, Chief Joseph Ofoegbu, issued the threat order while addressing protesting members of the union at the port.
He observed that it has become the custom and tradition of the Onne Port to drive his members from their original site without any just cause and an alternative parking point.
Ofoegbu argued that the measure has now compelled them to park at the Port Harcourt-Aba express road to protest their non-accommodation.
"As you can see, the heavy trucks are parked along Aba-Port Harcourt expressway. they are not parked here looking for consignment to evacuate," he said. "They are here because of protest. we are protesting that we have no accommodation and, being an important body to the government in the evacuation of consignments, if we don't evacuate the consignment, the traffic flow of consignments is bound to collapse," he stressed.
The NURTW Onne branch boss admitted that their continuous presence on the highway was constituting a public nuisance and as such would want the management to reverse their decision and ensure the speedy return of the heavy trucks to their former site.
"They can't just be telling us to go on the road and queue up. By the time we queue up the police will charge us for obstruction and the price of obstruction is not definite," he stated.
According to him, the federal and state governments should see transporters as important contributors in the nation's economy who are highly responsible, educated and must be accorded deep respect.
He maintained that since they have conscientiously lived up to the expectations of paying every necessary and unnecessary demand almost on a daily basis as requested by both the federal and state governments, government remained obliged to them by providing them with a secure and befitting park to enhance their operations.
Ofoegbu also called for a uniform motor emblem as well as their resolve to assist the government to apprehend some fake revenue contractors who had always had cause to arrest them for unusual levies.
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