by
Despite
reports that the federal government had commenced talks with the
leaders of PENGASSAN, Nigerian oil workers are going ahead with their
planned strike today(Thursday).
The acting general secretary of Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior
Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), Lumumba Okugbawa, has
disclosed exclusively to Premium Times
on Thursday morning that the nation’s oil workers are going ahead with
their planned strike today (Thursday), despite reports that the
government had commenced talks with their leaders.
Okugbawa disclosed further that the PENGASSAN were not aware of any
negotiations between any arm of the association and the government on
any of their demands.
“It is not true there are on-going negotiations between
PENGASSAN and government. Apart from the inconclusive negotiation on
June 23, which was rescheduled to June 30, only to be put off
indefinitely with no further appointment, we are not aware of any other
negotiation with government,” Okugbawa said.
He added that reports of negotiations with the oil workers was part
of the government’s characteristic way of causing confusion whenever a
strike notice is issued.
“If government was sincere, why would it always wait till after
the strike had already started before coming out in the media to talk
about non-existing negotiations?” he asked.
Okugbawa revealed that the Federal Ministry of Labour had sent an
email to the leadership of PENGASSAN late on Wednesday inviting them to a
meeting scheduled for Thursday (today) when the strike was planned to
commence.
He said the ministry later sent a text message to reschedule the
meeting for Friday, saying the previous schedule was not convenient, in
view of the extended public holiday, adding that the association had
since replied the government that the Friday schedule was equally not
convenient, as it could not get all its top executives from across the
country where they were deployed to monitor the beginning of the strike.
“In any case, the decision to embark on the strike was taken by
the National Executive Council of the Association. It is not possible
to stop the commencement of the strike now for a meeting with government
on Friday. As far as PENGASSAN is concerned, the strike has commenced
as planned. The strike can only be suspended or called off by no other
arm, but NEC. For now getting all its members to return for a meeting is
foing to be difficult,” he said.
Although he did not confirm any new date the association would find convenient, said it would not be earlier than next Tuesday.
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