Oluyinka Onigbinde
Ahead of the take-off of operations, the management of Lekki Deep seaport has declared that its workers will not be part of any trade union.
The expansive port is located within the Lagos Free Trade Zone. The port management said on Tuesday that unionization is alien to the law establishing the free trade zones.
Addressing visiting members of the International Transport Federation (ITF) and the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) during a visit to the port, the Environmental Manager of the port, Mr. Adurayemi Ogundele said according to the Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA) law, under which the free trade zone and the deep seaport operates, it does not give room for unionisation of workers and as such the workers may not enjoy the privilege of being unionised.
Speaking specifically, he said, “for the unions, by NEPZA Act I have been privileged to read a couple of what is written there for free trade zones. There is nothing like unionisation as I speak. I have spent 10 years here and I have never heard of union. So I don’t know how this will be worked out. So for now there is nothing like unionisation of workers” he declared.
However, responding, the President General of the MWUN, Com. Adewale Adeyanju,said a port is a port and as such workers at the deep seaport will be unionised. He stated there is nothing like a free trade zone when it comes to unionisation of workers, while warning the management of the deep seaport to get ready for war if that’s the plan to ensure that workers are not unionised.
Drawing inferences, Adeyanju pointed out that both Intels and LADOL terminal (that are similar to Lekki port) are under the free trade zone and their workers are unionised and as such Lekki Deep seaport can not be different. He posited that the management may have goofed and asked that they go through the law again to avoid a face-off with the union.
He said: “A port is a port, there is nothing like a Free Trade Zone when it comes to unionisation of workers and you have already opened up what you have in mind against unionising our members and I think it’s better for me to prepare for war against those who don’t want the workers to be unionised
“The port operations belong to workers and they must be unionized. We have Intels, are they not under a free zone? We have port workers, we have dockworkers, we have seafarers that are working there now. If you are trying to exempt this new port that you don’t want to entertain any union, it’s not going to work”, he declared.
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“I was born and bred in Lagos and I know what the law says, so we are prepared. All the workers that are going to work in this place are from MWUN and we will support you if you want us to support you, but with that statement I heard now, if I have heard it before now, I won’t have come. I would have prepared for war and waited until when the port will begin commercial operations and now prepare for war”, he said.
Speaking also at the sideline of the meeting, the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) Dockers Section Coordinator, Enrico Totorlani also stated that there is need for the port to be fully-unionised, adding that workers at the port need to have a voice in the planning of the port.
“The port definitely needs to be fully-unionised, we need a workers’ voice there for key issues like safety and the workers need to have a voice in the planning of the port, because of the multi-agency actors coming in there.
“Ports are complex places; the only way to make them truly safe is to speak and give a voice to the people who actually work there”, he said.
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