Fresh attack on Nigerian oil
2005-01-30 17:52
Lagos - Nigerian oil workers unions have served a new strike notice after an oil servicing firm refused to sack its embattled expatriate manager, a labour leader told AFP on Sunday.
The two unions - Nupeng and Pengassan - at Wasco, a Malaysian-owned oil services firm based in the southern Nigerian city of Port Harcourt, suspended a three-day work stoppage last week after the government waded into their dispute with the management.
The unions had called the strike to demand the resignation of two expatriate workers at the Malaysian firm whom they accused of mistreating the local workers.
"The Port Harcourt council of the two unions met on Friday and decided to resume the strike on February 8 because the management has refused to sack the general manager, Mike Walker," Pengassan zonal chairperson Chris Ochonogor said.
"The company has met all our demands except their refusal to send Walker packing. If he does not leave by that date, we will paralyse oil activities in and around Port Harcourt," he said.
Port Harcourt is the hub of Nigeria's oil industry, accounting for the bulk of the west African country's daily exports of 2.5 million barrels.
Ochonogor said the other expatriate has since left the country.
Pengassan national president Brown Ogbeifun told AFP that efforts were being made to resolve the dispute.
"We are trying to intervene so that the matter does not get out of hand. We are very hopeful that the dispute will be amicably resolved to avert any major strike," he said.
Wasco's local workers had accused the expatriates of insulting them and calling in the police to use violence against them during negotiations with management over their welfare.
They gave the company a one-week ultimatum to sack the foreigners or be faced with a local strike.
The ultimatum expired on January 24 without the demand being met and the workers embarked on a strike which was suspended after three days following the intervention of labour ministry officials.
The new strike threat is bound to cause ripples in the international oil market, where Nigeria is a major player.