Following the death of a member of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) at its terminal about three weeks ago, dockworkers operating at the foremost Roll on Roll off (RORO) terminal at the Tin Can Island Port have advised the management of Five Star Logistics Limited to employ the services of life guards to address issues of drowning by workers of the concessionaire.
The dockworkers made the appeal to the terminal operator, saying the move will ensure safety of their colleagues at the terminal.
Following the death of a member of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) at its terminal about three weeks ago, dockworkers operating at the foremost Roll on Roll off (RORO) terminal at the Tin Can Island Port have advised the management of Five Star Logistics Limited to employ the services of life guards to address issues of drowning by workers of the concessionaire.
The dockworkers made the appeal to the terminal operator, saying the move will ensure safety of their colleagues at the terminal.
They said that discharging of vehicles from vessels is a herculean task when compared to other imported items like bulk and general cargoes or containers.
They said that discharging of vehicles from ships involves more of human effort than mechanical efforts, adding that anybody can accidentally slip into the water without hopes of being rescued.
A cross section of the workers who spoke to Auto Port Weekly at the RoRo terminal in Lagos last week said that the need for a life guard is long overdue.
In their response, they said," the nature of our job at Five Star Logistics terminal is quite different from that of other terminals at Tin Can port".
"Discharging of vehicles; both new and fairly used requires more of human effort from the ship to the terminal, so we are saying that the management of the Five Star Logistics terminal should employ the services of life guard to assist for safety reasons".
"If you go to PTML where their services are similar, there are life guard and we all know that PTML is also into vehicles discharge, yet they have life guard in place for safety purposes".
According to them, other concessionaires operating at the Tin Can Island port engage the services of life guard, and added that accident of such magnitude had occurred in other terminals, but no live was lost.
They also called on the top hierarchy of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria and the president of the dockworkers branch, Comrade Adewale Adeyanju to address the issue of safety in the discussions with terminal operations.
They went further to suggest that: "We want the national executives of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria and also the president of dockworkers Comrade Adewale Adeyanju to help lend their voices to assist members at the terminal because what we saw on that fateful day was emotional and painful".
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