Three-day port workers strike: Port users mourn over N100bn lost to the strike 

 Abiola Seun writes.

Though, the strike embarked upon by MWUN has been regarded as skeletal as it affected only port operations at the quay side allowing cargo clearance and movement of cargoes out of the seaports.

But, the strike has hugely been successful as port operators have continue to count their losses which would ultimately be transferred to the final consumers who know little or nothing about the strike.

Also, if not timely addressed, foreign shipping companies would slam a congestion surcharge on the nation’s seaports and there by increasing the cost of doing business at the port.

This is because the port operations have already been paralyzed on the quay side and with the port operating like a chain, it is most likely the other aspect would be on hold as a critical part of discharging cargoes from the vessels halted by striking dockworkers.

However, MWUN on June 13 issued a 14- day ultimatum to the Federal Government to prevail on International Oil Companies operating in the country to pay stevedoring contractors appointed by the Nigerian Port Authority Stevedoring charges due to dockworkers at the nation’s ports.

The union had then threatened that if after 14 days the government failed to prevail on the IOCs, its members would withdraw their services and all seaports nationwide will be shut.

The statement signed by the President General of MWUN, Comrade Adewale Adeyanju and Secretary General, Felix Akingboye, said despite several meetings between NPA and the IOCs to grant access to the stevedoring contractors, process their invoices and effect payment, the operators have refused to comply with the NPA directive one year after the stevedoring contractors were appointed.

The union said it can no longer continue to watch her members die prematurely because of the defiant attitude of the IOCs.

According to the statement, “We are aware that on 1st June 2018, the NPA appointed stevedoring contractors to provide stevedoring services at various off –shore, jetties and on-shore locations to the International oil services and other operators.

“We commend the Managing Director of NPA for the effort NPA management has made to compel the IOCs to engage the services of appointed stevedores and registered dockworkers in their stevedoring operations. But, unfortunately, the operators have refused to comply with the NPA directive after one year that the stevedoring contractors were appointed.

“The position of the operators on the NPA directive is worrisome and very surprising because the same operators had processed and paid the former stevedoring contractors since 2010 through a foremost terminal operator. So, why are they refusing to cooperate with the newly appointed stevedoring contractors since the modus operandi remains the same?

“In fact, at a stakeholders meeting held on February 28th, 2018, organised by NPA to sensitize the IOCs, jetty owners and terminal owners, the NPA management made it clear that in line with section 27 of the NIMASA Act, 2007, only government appointed stevedores and registered dockworkers are empowered by law to solely handle discharge and loading operations at the port, jetties and oil platforms.

“The Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria has been monitoring the chain of events on this matter since the last one year, and noted that the implication of the operators defiant attitude amongst others is untimely death of some dock workers while awaiting the payment of their wages, because they could not meet their family obligations like payment of house rent, children school fees and hospital bills, to mention but few.

“Consequently, we are constrained to give the Ministry of Transportation that superintends the appointment of stevedores’ 14- day ultimatum to prevail on the management of the International Oil Companies to pay all outstanding bills to our members, failure of which we will be compelled to withdraw our services and shut down operations in all the nations’ seaports.”

After the expiration of the 14 days ultimatum, the aggrieved workers gave a three day grace period for the IOCs to negotiate with the workers but all to no avail this however necessitated the closure of the seaports and consequently the refusal of dockworkers to discharge cargoes from vessels.

The union led by Com. Adewale Adeyanju on Wednesday declared the start of an indefinite strike after it occurred the IOCs were not ready to engage the union leaders on how to pay the the outstanding allowances.

While Adeyanju led his members to shutdown the nation’s premier port, Apapa port as early as 6:00 am, other members joined to shut other ports across the country. They stopped containers laden trucks from accessing or exiting the seaports.

The leaders of the union however left the port gate at around 10:25am when the managing director of NPA, Hadiza Bala Usman addressed the protesting Union leaders at the Apapa port gate, thereby allowing trucks to access and exit the port only.

Com. Adeyanju said that the decision to embark on strike was its last resort after the expiration of the two weeks ultimate issued to the IOCs on the matter.

According to Adeyanju, the IOCs have also refused to get into talks with the union for a way forward since the expiration of the ultimatum. A situation he said had been so for about one year now.

He said, “We want to use this medium to intimate you, and the Federal Government, of the non-payment of stevedoring wages to dockworkers by the international oil companies (IOCs) operating in Nigeria.

“We are aware that on June 1, 2018, the NPA appointed stevedoring contractors to provide stevedoring services at various offshore jetties and onshore locations to the international oil services and other operators.
“It will be necessary to inform you that NPA had held several meetings with these operators to grant access to the government-appointed stevedoring contractors, process their invoices and effect payment, but unfortunately, the operators have refused to comply with the NPA directive after one year that the contractors were appointed”

Also, the President NPA Branch, MWUN,Comrade Ifeanyi Mazeli reiterated that the presidency is aware of what the shutdown has caused the nations economy ,adding that the union will not bow to pressure from any quarters until justice is served.

While recounting the outcome of Wednesday meeting with management Mazeli , commended the union’s boss for his resilience and commitment for ensuring that members paid all entitlement and benefits  they deserved.

He called on members of the union to support the solidarity movement until the objective has been achieved.

Similarly, President Dockworkers Branch MWUN, Comrade Tajudeen Ohize said that the union will not fold its hands when things are not done the right way after a very long period agitation with the IOCs.

According to him ,”The multinationals cannot do such in other countries and we want to put a stop to all these anomalies once and for all”

On his part,President Seamen,NIWA Branch MWUN, Comrade Francis Bunu Abi called on members of the union to ensure that” injury to one is injury to all.”

Bunu assured the P.G MWUN that the leaders from all the branches will continue to stand by him in achieving a common goal.

Though, the NPA Intervened, midwifing a truce between the MWUN and the IOCs. They called for a meeting between MWUN and the International Oil Companies (IOCs) to mediate over the refusal of  the latter to pay all outstanding wages to Dockworkers but, the truce couldn’t stop the strike from going on.

Speaking with newsmen after a short meeting with the MWUN leadership, the NPA MD who was represented by the Executive Director, Marine and Operations, Dr Sekonte Davies said that the Authority is in solidarity with the dockworkers over their unpaid entitlement from the IOC’s.

According to him, “you can see the action of the MWUN. It is an action geared towards making sure people obey rules and regulation in this country.

“The stevedoring contractors were appointed over a year ago,  I think on the 28th of May 2018. That was when they were appointed, but since last year, the workers are not being paid. Some of these workers, their children have been out of school for a while due to non-payment of their entitlements by the IOC’s. Some families have even broken up due to this issue.

“So the management of the NPA empathises with the workers over their situation. We empathise with the workers because we are the ones who appointed the stevedoring contractors.

“However, we are going to sort the issue because the IOC’s, who are the major recalcitrant in this matter, have started calling for a meeting since the workers began their action.

“The awareness has been created, and we believe the meeting that will hold by 1 pm today will solve the issues.”

Inspite the truce meeting called by NPA, the IOCs had remained adamant as the meeting  had remained deadlocked from Wednesday they started until Friday.

Also addressing newsmen,  the President-General of the MWUN, Comrade Adewale Adeyanju reiterated the desire of the Union to continue with the strike action until the final outcome of the negotiations.

Speaking after her first meeting with the IOCs at 4:30pm, Adeyanju revealed that no headway was reached at the meeting due to uncompromising stance of the IOcs.

However, an impeccable source who attended the meeting revealed that inability to agree on the total amount to be paid was the major cause of the deadlock.
“The IOC’s were not willing to pay all the entitlements at once. You know this issue has been on for more than a year now, and the entitlements due to the workers covers that period, and the IOC’s were willing to upset the payment in tranches, but the workers won’t agree. They want the entire payment of over a year due to them paid. That is the reason for the deadlock, but we hope the reconciliation meeting continues maybe tomorrow because we cannot afford to have the ports not working,” the source stated.

But, according to the MWUN President-General, “The meeting was deadlocked, so the strike continues.”
When asked to give details of why the meeting was deadlocked, the MWUN President-General declined to speak further, insisting that the meeting is deadlocked and the strike will continue.

Also, on Thursday night, the union President-General informed that the strike continues. He said the IOCs haven’t brought something concrete to the table hence the strike will continue till weekend.

Now, the strike had led to queueing of vessels on the quayside as workers who would have discharges cargoes have been on strike hereby allowing the nation’s economy to bleed under high charges by foreign shipping companies.

For instance, the Lagos Chambers of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) said that the nation may have lost more than N100Billion

Reacting to the strike action the Director General LCCI Dr. Muda Yusuf said over hundreds of billions of Naira have been lost as a result of the closure of ports nationwide.

According to him, “It is unfortunate that this is happening because the cost to the economy is enormous, because we are talking of hundred of billions of naira, in terms of demurrage that people will have to pay.
“In terms of the disruption in production processes, disruption to businesses, the interest payment people have to pay and whole lot of issues and this will further compound the issues of congestion they have in the port.

“Because by the time they go back now they have to be clearing backlogs of cargoes and so on and so forth”
“So it’s unfortunate that this is happening and I think that what we should be doing going forward is to ensure that things like this don’t get to this stage, we should not allow it to come to a point where they will go on strike, there should have been proper engagement and responsive action on both sides before it gets to this point. Because ideally the strike should be the last resort” he said.

Also, about fourteen vessels with various commodities  have been trapped in the two busiest seaports in Nigeria Apapa and Tin-Can following the industrial action embarked upon since Wednesday.

Some of the items in the ship it was gathered are perishable items, while others are delicate commodities that need to exit the ports on time.

Also, scores of containers estimated at about 12,000 were  trapped inside the ports nationwide, during the strike action.

The impact of the strike was  felt by licensed terminal operators (TOs) who lamented the attendant loss of revenue while the strike lasted.

Spokesman, Seaports Terminal Operators of Nigeria (STOAN), Bolaji Akinola said that cargo handling operations at the terminals across the country were rendered redunctant which eventually impacted negatively  on the smooth movement of cargoes due to the base state of the ports access road.

“Unfortunately, it is not a good development at all. We hope that the IOCs will meet and resolve the matter immediately in the interest of the Nigerian economy. Because when the ports suffer, the economy will suffer” he had observed during tge strike action.

Though,  the strike action was over but its effects will linger for a while.

It would take a while before the backlog of cargoes which had built up during the strike, is cleared.

The issue of demurrages on cargo caught in the web of the strike action may also be a point of friction between  them importers and  their agents one one hand as well as the terminal operators and the shipping companies on the other.

Ultimately,  it is the final consumers who will bear the brunt of the strike action as any extra cost incurred  by the importers will be passed on to them.