NUPENG/PENGASSAN Strike?

[olagbajf@seiu.org]

  >Return-path: <soren@igc.org>
  >Return-Path: <soren@igc.org>
  >Date: Fri, 24 Oct 1997 06:36:16 -0700 (PDT)
  >From: C Soren Ambrose <soren@igc.apc.org>
  >To: olagbajf@seiu.org
  >Subject: NUPENG/PENGASSAN Strike?
  >
  >Oil workers threaten to strike on Monday in Nigeria
  >Date: Thu Oct 23 13:31:04 CDT 1997
  >                                         
  >   LAGOS, Oct 23 (AFP) - Workers in two oil labour unions have  
  >threatened to go on strike as from Monday if authorities failed to 
  >meet their demands over unpaid salaries and allowances and better 
  >working conditions, press reports said Thursday. 
  >   "As from Monday, we shall cut crude oil exports if our demands  
  >are not met. We will withdraw our members who hold the keys to the 
  >oil terminals", they said in a statement Wednesday here. 
  >   The workers, in the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), are  
  >members of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of 
  >Nigeria (PENGASSAN) and the National Union Petroleum and Natural Gas 
  >Workers (NUPENG). They said that their 10-day ultimatum, which they 
  >issued to DPR management, would expire on  October 25. 
  >   The workers said that the DPR, the supervisory body for the  
  >nation's oil industry, is grossly under-funded, the reports said. 
  >   The DPR, an agency under the ministry of petroleum resources,  
  >holds the key to the manifolds through which oil is exported. It is 
  >also responsible for enforcing petroleum laws and regulations. 
  >   If the strike takes place, Nigeria would lose millions of  
  >dollars in revenue as lifting of crude oil at the terminals, where 
  >DPR workers play crucial roles, would be disrupted. When lifting is 
  >disrupted, the nation pays millions of dollars in demurrage charges 
  >as vessels would be unable to load on schedule, the Vanguard 
  >newspaper said. 
  >   The National Concord newspaper (private) put the daily loss at  
  >16.5 million dollars if the strike starts. 
  >   Oil accounts for more than 90 percent of Nigeria's foreign  
  >exchange earnings. 
  >   A two-month strike by PENGASSAN and NUPENG workers in the summer  
  >of 1994 almost paralysed business activities in Nigeria, especially 
  >in Lagos, the nation's economic capital. 
  >   That strike was in protest against the annulment of the June 12,  
  >1993, presidential election which Chief Moshood Abiola was widely 
  >believed to have won. 
  >
  >