There has been an unprecedented peace in the Nigerian maritime labour system since he assumed office last year as the president general, Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria. But all that is changing as the union, in collaboration with its senior staff association in NPA has decaled an industrial dispute with NPA over certain issues. Comrade Tony Nted Emmanuel is an unusual labour leader who carries himself with a lot of respect and dignity. He told me that the two house unions in NPA have been pushed to the wall by the management of NPA.
How has it been since you came in as the PG of the MWUN
Well, we are trying to cope; we needed to study the situation on ground, the terminal operators, the shipping companies and all the stakeholders in order to be able to understand ourselves. I think we are working together.
When you took over, what were the major challenges that you faced?
The porosity of the port today are the challenges; most especially the dock aspect of it which is my branch and which I consider as my constituency. We have a lot of challenges in the sense that there are quite a lot of people in the port, and by this I meant that the industry is overstaffed and like I always advocate that the only thing we need to do is to see how we can reduce the number of people in the work place so that we can have enough to go round and pay well and use the remaining to maintain the industry.
When I asked you about the challenges I was actually refereeing to the usual history of difficulties of settling down. In this case I wanted to know if the former PG also poised a challenge as he did to your predecessor.
The man (Ukaumunna) is no longer claiming to be a PG, what he is saying now is that he is a labour activist and if he is a labour activist, he will be in the position to assist us to help us fight for the common good of workers in the industry. Irrespective of the few cases we are having in court. I think the former PG issue is not an issue anymore; the man himself has surrendered and said that he is now a labour activist and no longer PG.
The Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria has four branches, let us look at them one after the other
Yes, we have four branches under the union; let me start from my constituency which is the dockworkers branch. Since we came on board we believe that without God, we cannot move forward, so we put God first and that was why we introduced ‘Dockers Restoration’, we always pray together, we teach them about safety, we teach them about moral values and from there, the system has changed. As for me today, I am there knowing that the president general is from their constituency and so they always listen to my advice and they will not want to do anything that will affect the branch so that other branches will not give us names: that when somebody from the NPA branch was there, the place was quiet and now that its from the dockworkers branch a lot of things happening. So the dockworkers are following every instruction we give to them and they are working well with us.
What about the other branches?
The other branches we are talking about are the seamen branch where a lot of them have no job and it is because of the poor implementation of the Cabotage Act. And like I always tell people that the Cabotage law can only become effective when Nigerians have their own vessels, you can’t expect a vessel that flies Canada flag to come into the country and when the ship comes in, you want it to crew Nigerian seafarers, it’s very impossible. We had a similar problem with BUA terminal in Port Harcourt when we had a vessel which is a floating factory which was brought in from Sri Lanka, when the argument ensued they said look this vessel is not flying the Nigerian flag, it’s flying the Panama flag, but we said no because the vessel is doing some domestic trade by going to Escravos to bring in some loads to offload and we said no; so these are some of the predicaments that we are having and so in the seamen branch. We have a lot of problems because so many of them are not employed; these are the areas we need to look into. The other branch is the shipping branch; I think the shipping branch does not have much problems, but where we have problems now is the Nigerian Ports Authority branch because they have some anomalies.
Since you have mentioned Cabotage, I will want you to tell me your assessment of the law?
I know that NIMASA as an organization is established by law and if as an organization, you set specific targets like: at the end of the day they will train about 5,000 seafarers and by the grace of God at the end of the year we will send 300 to sea. If at the end of the day, we were unable to meet the target, the first thing is to ask what the challenges are. At the end of the day, maybe you will discover that there are no vessels or probably the people you are training are not qualified. Why I say that is because there was a vessel in Port Harcourt and we had to go to the terminal to chase all the Sri Lanka nationals and insisted that Nigerian seafarers must be employed instead. But when they employed the Nigerian seafarers, the information we gathered was that those people (the Nigerians) are not qualified to work on that vessel, that shows that maybe they are not properly trained in that particular field, so NIMASA needs to train these seafarers, they need to give them thorough training in all the fields. If that is done, I think the Cabotage will work well. The addition is if we also have our own vessels.
What type of relationship exists between the union and stakeholders in the industry?
One thing I believe is that it is when you know what you are doing that people will respect you, the union you see today is not the union that will begin to go out and ask for unnecessary funds and illegal levies, we only depend on our check- off dues and every stakeholder and terminal operators in the port understands all these; that the system has changed, and the second thing we do is to make sure that we represent the interest of our members, when something goes wrong, they call our attention immediately and we will intervene and that is what we are known for, relationship between us and the stakeholders in the port is cordial, it is only when you go and demand things that are stupid that they will see you as irresponsible but they know today that this union is responsible and we are collaborating well.
How was the controversy over BUA Cement at Port Harcourt resolved?
The matter has gone to court and I think we don’t need to go into it anymore. This matter was taken to court by one of the parties; asking for judicial review and I think that is what the union and the other stakeholders need in the port. The problem we had was that this vessel was brought into the port (they called it floating factory) and we find out that when you put a floating factory in a particular berth, you thereby deprive other conventional vessel coming in for ship quick turn around, the federal government will be loosing money and the dockworkers will also be loosing money. For instance, if you bring in a vessel of 35,000 metric tones, you will offload it within 10 days and the vessel will go, and you bring in a floating badge that carries about 5,000 metric tones, you cannot finish within 10 days and that is where the difference Our argument was that the Act which established NPA does not allow a floating badge to be stationed at the berth, so they should find a permanent place where they can manage it with NPA and that has been our argument. I think what we actually need now is judicial interpretation. We want to know whether BUA terminal has the right to put a floating factory stationed at the berth or not and that was exactly what we did. That was why I said the issue has been resolved because the matter is in court and the court has to take decision to say whether they are right or not.
Recently dockworkers went on strike at the APM Terminal in Apapa port, how was the crisis resolved?
The management of APMT is becoming too hard on Nigerian workers, although we intervened and made it very clear in our collective bargaining agreement that whenever there is going to be redundancy they have to call the attention of the union and tell us why. We will like to know if it is because of the global recession then you tell and we will understand or if there are wastages in some areas and we will know how to manage it with you. But we were not informed or contacted, what we saw the next day was that about 10 Nigerians have been asked to go home, we asked why and nobody could explain, so the best we could do was to stop operations in order to call the attention of the management to their illegal practice, they called us, we sat down together and we resolved the issues. Those that we found out that they could no longer accommodate, we asked them to go while the rest will come back and that was how we resolved the issue.
There is an unusual relative peace among dockworkers, is it because you came from that constituency?
It might not necessarily be because I am from that branch, but you see dockworkers have one principle and that is to respect a leader that is honest, if you tell them the truth they will follow the truth, if you tell them lies and they find out they will lose confidence in you. So, I think they know that I always tell them the truth and most especially the president of that branch who also came out from that background; we try to manage the situation. I think with prayers like I said that we always do ‘Dockers Restoration’, these prayers are also working, and they also come to understand that you cannot achieve anything with violence except by law.
Presently the union is in dispute with the management of NPA. What led to this?
I think the management of Nigerian Port Authority is not being fair to the workers of the agency. Let me quote from your newspaper that the least paid worker in NPA earns about N120, 000. I think that is unfair, whether they pay N200,000 or N300,000 is not the issue, what we are asking is not the salary, we are talking about end of the year bonuses, it is not a new thing, it has been on for the past fifteen years. The practice is that at the end of the year they pay the money to workers to go and enjoy with their families, it is not only NPA that this happens, we have NIMASA we have NNPC and other government agencies. We met with the management of NPA in November 2009, we met and we said what you gave us in 2007 is too small because of this monetization issue, we want you to improve on the bonus, the management said no they would not, at the end of the day the MD promised to improve on it, but with very meagre amount, we said no problem, we talked with him as a father and we ended it so. At the end of the day, we went back and the man said he cannot do more than what he did in 2007 and we said fine if that is the case give it to us, we will accept it to close the issue. We have been dragging it from November till date and now that we are in April, the bonus of 2008 bonus has not been paid and the one for 2009 is still pending.
But don’t you think that a bonus is a privilege and not a right of workers?
We agree that it is a privilege, but this privilege has been taking place for the past 15 years, a privilege can be converted into a right when it becomes a constant privilege. Now the question we ask the management is – why the delay after accepting to give us what you agreed but each time they keep saying the board will have to meet and from November, 2009 till now, the board has not met, are we going to wait till thy kingdom come? If the board is going to meet in 2011, we will wait for the board? Even the National Assembly which is the highest organ in this country do break their holidays when there are emergencies. The board chairman is in Abuja and they are all around, they can sit down take decisions and do the right thing, but each time we ask them, they will say board, so we are waiting for the board to meet, by the time we close down the ports, maybe the board will meet then that is why we gave them a 14 days ultimatum and at the expiration of this ultimatum we will close down the ports.
There are other issues?
Yes, we still have the issue of tally clerks and on-board security men who are parts and parcel of the dockworkers. Other labours in the port system have been paid except tally clerks and security men, this issue has been dragging for so long, and it’s going to two years. It was this same MD who set up that committee to look into the wages of dockworkers in the ports and ensure uniformity; because some terminals may pay N2 and others will pay N3, so there is need for us to get a uniform package for the dockworkers. The committee sat and took decisions, the problem we had in that committee was that the tally clerks and security men’s payment is being handled by the NPA while that of labour is being handled by NIMASA. When they concessioned the port, the former managing director of NPA made it very clear that as a result of under declarations in the ports, the tally clerks will be there to work for the government and that was why they retained tally clerks and we believe that Nigerian Port Authority will take all the tally clerks, but after that negotiation, the MD said he is not going to pay and that the chairman of the committee who signed the agreement has no right to sign and he set up another committee including NIMASA and the rest, we reached the same agreement and we signed, he refused to pay. A year after, the NPA board was constituted, he used delay tactics and took it to the board, the board has been dragging this issue and they set up another committee, the committee went into the port did a lot of things and worked for almost four months, at the end of the day the committee has completed its assignment again and asked NPA to pay. But why we are waiting is because the board has not met so they cannot submit the report and when they submit the report, we won’t know when they will pay.
Some senior managers in NPA have told me that under the present circumstances, NPA does not need tally clerks and that NPA’s interests will be better served by cargo surveyors
Quote me, most of the so called senior managers, especially those who worked in operation and traffic, they are all beneficiaries of under-declarations; quote me anywhere and I will prove it. They made lot of money from this under-declaration, how can you say you don’t want tally clerks, the cargo surveyor they are talking about, which instrument will they use to measure a cargo that is coming as 25,000 metric tones which we can translate into thousands of bags in a vessel, if you are talking about liquid bulk, you can use instrument to know the content, but bagged rice, fishes, sugar and so on, how can you measure it. At our meetings, it was agued strongly and they came to agree with us that there is no instrument for cargo surveyor and that tally clerks are very useful, they want to get their own tally clerks in order to do whatever they like, every business is profit oriented. If you own a terminal and they asked you to bring a tally clerk which you are paying, a vessel comes in with 10,000 metric tones and all he has to do is tally it, so for them to get accurate record they need to get a neutral tally clerk that will do the tallying and that was exactly the argument. If anybody in this country says he wants to eradicate tally clerks and allow terminal operators and cargo surveyors, then they have something they are hiding.
I was told that your argument over gratuity and pension holds no water because PENCOM is already holding meeting on that
It is a very simple thing; it has caused a lot of arguments; perhaps the Nigerian Ports Authority wrote to PENCOM to ask for clarifications, PENCOM wrote back to them to say that gratuity will be negotiated by employer and employee and that has been the issue. But sometimes I begin to wonder that even though those people who stole a lot of money from the treasury, don’t value money that they stole, but the one you sweated for, which you worked for in a company for more that 20 years and you are paid, I think it has a lot of blessing. I don’t see why it should drag for so long, the MD of NPA, the EDs, the general manager, the port manager and the junior workers are all beneficiaries so why are we dragging. They said they will not pay because it contradicts the payment of pension and gratuity, we said no, they wrote to PENCOM and PENCOM wrote back telling them to pay because it is negotiable and they have been negotiating, so many people have lost their lives, for the past years so many people have left Nigerian Ports Authority, but their gratuity has not been paid, that is where the problem lies and we said either you pay them or you wait for the board.
You are to meet with the management of NPA, if the outcome is not favourable are you going to sick to your ultimatum?
We have already mobilized all our members and asked them to be on standby because most of these issues we are talking about have already been agreed upon. The tally clerk and on- board security me issues have been agreed on, the issue of end of year bonus is agreed on, the issue of the remaining severance packages to the dockworkers and the issue of gratuity have already been agreed upon, it’s just that some people said they are not signing while some are ready to sign, but let us just assume that it has been agreed upon, what is pending is the issue of monetization and that is what we are still dragging, because it has not been agreed on but if all the ones we have agreed on are not met by the end of the expiration of the ultimatum, then we will close down the ports.
Considering the fact that a new minister has just been appointed, will it not seem as if the union is being used against the management?
They can say all sorts of things, what I am telling you is that the management of NPA is being used against the union, because all these issues that we have agreed upon are not being implemented, so who is now being used? You remember what happened during payment of severance benefits to dockworkers, when Dr Okonjo Iweala (then minister of finance) said she was going to pay each dockworkers N40,000 and in the course of discussing this, the former managing director of NPA and even some of them that are still in existence today connived with some dockworkers to send them out of the ports so that the terminal operators can be able to take over the port. It was all revealed, they came back to this union to say they were sorry, they said it was the NPA management that use them so that terminal operators can be able to take over the port. Maybe that is what they are doing now, they want to make sure that they did not pay so that workers will again rise against us, so it is the NPA using workers against us, because we reached an agreement and they refused to honour it, so who is now using who? Look at the issue of dockworkers for the past two years they have not paid them their severance package and the same goes for tally clerks and on-board security men who have no been paid up till now; even though the agreement has been reached and agreed upon.
NPA says that it does no have enough funds to meet your demands and that presently its monthly salary bill is about 2Billion
That one is not correct, they should examine their conscience because they will tell you that they are paying N2billion but sometimes when you get the statistics of workers you will see that some are ghost workers, we have motor boys we have drivers and cleaners in their homes; even those who are no longer in service are still being paid, so if they are paying N2billion or N3billion that is their own cup of tea, but as I am talking to you, if you go to NPA to get statistics what they are paying is not more than N1billion.
Are you alleging that the figure is padded?
That one is story, maybe they are paying it to themselves, they should tell the whole world, but for me I know they are not paying hat much monthly.
Is strike the only option
Well, if dialogue fails, strike is to call the attention of the federal government that this is what is going on; it is not to kill anybody because we are not using guns, we will just tell all our members to stop rendering services so that at the end of the day the government will ask what is going on and they will hear the truth.
What kind of management do you think we have in NPA
The management we have in NPA is the management that refuses to pay attention to workers.
What kind of managing director do we have there?
Well, he is a friend, he is a nice person, and you can see the man is a very handsome young man, but you cannot appraise somebody’s mind through his facial appearance. But looking at the man face gives you a very wrong impression of him. Your outlook should be able to project your heart.
With all these, will you say that port concession was a mistake?
For me it is not a mistake, it is the right thing that the government has done, if you want to compare the business before now to what we are seeing today, I think today is better.
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