NNPC Embarks On Nationwide Strike

According to the report, Oil workers have
shut down the operations of the Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC)
nationwide following Tuesday’s unbundling
of the corporation. Members of staff and
management of the corporation arrived
their various offices on Wednesday
morning to discover that they could not
gain entrance following the total strike.
The immediate impact of the strike will be
nationwide fuel scarcity as products will
not be lifted by NUPENG. It is not
expected to affect the crude oil export yet
except the Department of Petroleum
Resources (DPR) joins in solidarity. Ibe
Kachikwu, minister of state for petroleum
resources who doubles as the NNPC group
managing director, had announced the
creation of seven independent units on
Tuesday, namely downstream, gas and
power, refineries, ventures, corporate
planning and services, and finance and
accounts.
NNPC’s stranded workers in Abuja PHOTO:
Fred Nwabufo The group executive
committee (GEC) of the the Nigeria Union
of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers
(NUPENG) and the National Union of
Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers
(NUPENG) convened an emergency meeting at 10pm on Tuesday to discuss the
development.
At the end of the meeting, GEC sent this
message to all members: “The GEC of
NUPENG & PENGASSAN at its meeting of
8th March 2016, which started at
10:00pm has extensively discussed the
pronouncement of the GMD on NNPC
UNBUNDLING. We observed that the GMD/
HMSP totally disregarded due process and failed to engage STAKEHOLDERS. Hence, from midnight today, ALL NNPC
LOCATIONS will be SHUT DOWN
COMPLETELY until further notice.
Further directives will be communicated
accordingly.” When TheCable visited the
NNPC headquarters on Wednesday,
hundreds of the corporation’s staff littered
the road causing gridlock on Herbert
Macaulay way. Unionists in red were at the
scene barricading the entrance to the
NNPC building. Also, security agents were
on hand to forestall break down of order.
A staff member of the NNPC, who spoke
on condition of anonymity, told this
newspaper that he was at the corporation’s
building as of 7:30am on Wednesday but
met “it barricaded by members of
PENGASSAN.”
TheCable tried to speak with one of the
leaders of the union, but he said: “We are
not here for journalists. This is not for the
press.” Kachikwu had said the distribution of subsidiary companies of the corporation would further be restructuredinto direct management of the divisions.
Last week, Kachikwu announced that the
government was planning to unbundle the
corporation into 30 profitable companies.