By Oluyinka Onigbinde
The President General Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN); Comrade Adewale Adeyanju has stated that his new position as the deputy president of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) will help to resolve many of the challenges maritime workers are having with their employers.
Adeyanju, in a chat with our correspondent stated that his new position will further help to resolve challenges the employers of labour such as the International Oil Companies (IoCs) and Shipping companies are having with their employees.
He assured that maritime workers will experience a new dawn in the sector as against where the workers might have been marginalized by some of their employers.
He said,”it will no longer be like when we have issues in the industry, we keep on taking our matters before the authorities in Abuja, now part of the NLC top leadership is also in Lagos.
“So whatever problem is affecting the stakeholders within the private sector, be it the terminal operators, the Nigerian Port Authority (NPA) or the industry at large, I believe the congress will give the support as they have been doing before.
“This is the first time they have ceded the power of NLC to the private sector and MWUN was able to be part of the new arrangement, so we need to deliver. We must be able to correct some of the mistakes we have made in the past, so that workers in the industry will know they have somebody representing them at the highest level of the NLC.
“We are giving them 100 percent assurance that our new position will be used to resolve some of the challenges they are having with the employers of labour like IOCs and shipping companies. They will see a new dawn in the sector as against where the workers might have been marginalized by some of these employers of labour.
“This time around, we are not going to accept that anymore. So, it is a plus; not only for the union, but all the stakeholders that are operating within the maritime sector. They are going to see a different union because this is the first time we are seeing the private sector managing the affairs of the labour movement in Nigeria.
“So, you are going to see a vibrant NAC in NLC that will be able to manage the challenges workers are facing. We all know what has been happening within the sector. We have been talking to the authorities about the condition of our roads. Look at Tin Can Island roads, the hoodlums have taken over the roads leading to the port. That is what we have been telling the NPA, that they should do total cleansing and remove people that don’t have anything in the port. They should work hand-in-hand with the Lagos State Government and ensure that access to the port is clear, so there can be free flow of traffic” he said.
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