Why NUPENG issues 7-day ultimatum over Chevron crisis

By ANDREW OJIEZEL

THE Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) has issued a 7- day Ultimatum to the Federal Government on the unresolved issues affecting Chevron Contract Workers over anti-labour practices.
The union states that if the Federal Government fails to intervene in the unresolved anti labour practices of chevron at the expiration of the 7-day ultimatum, that it will commence a national-wide strike action immediately.
The union adds that it has watched with keen interest the resolution reached with the Union, Chevron and the Federal Ministry of Labour and yet there is an ongoing termination of the jobs of our members.
It stress that despite the intervention of the Federal Ministries of Labour and Petroleum Resources, Chevron and its labour contractors have not deemed it fit to honour the resolutions reached at all its meetings.
NUPENG adds that some of the unresolved issues include job categorization of our members who have workers as contract staff for over 25years. But Chevron Nigeria Limited in their bid to deplete the numerical strength of NUPENG, introduced an obnoxious criteria of using remuneration to determine which union the contract workers should belong to in the company.
Other issues include the massive retirement of our members by the management of the various Chevron Labour Contractors without due process. The union states that some of the workers transited from the former 6 (Six) Contractors to the new sixteen Contractors were not paid their full entitlements as documented by NAPIMS and were therefore short paid.
NUPENG adds that all agreements reached with the Federal Ministry of Labour were reneged by Chevron and that they even refused to appear in a meeting convened by the Group Managing Director of the NNPC in Abuja last week.
The union also states that the company has begun secret recruitment of workers in order to phase out NUPENG members and that will be resisted at all cost. It thereafter calls on the Federal Government, and its agencies, the Federal Ministry of Labour, NNPC to intervene or face a nationwide strike at the expiration of the 7- day ultimatum. The Union will not issue any fresh ultimatum over this matter.