• Workers, NPA Mgt Sign Communiqué
• ‘Battle Ground’ Shifts To Abuja
• Mgt To Execute Workers’ Demand Before August 31, 2010
The two-day warning strike which was embarked upon by senior employees of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) last week has been suspended after two days of protracted meetings between the management and officials of the union; both at the branch level and at the national level.
The NPA branch is a part of the national body called; the Senior Staff Association of Communications, Transport, and Corporation (SSACTAC). It was the president general of the body, Comrade Adetunji Adesunkanmi who addressed the press on Monday, July 12, where he reeled out a long list of grievances against the management of NPA.
The union went ahead to issue a notice to go on a two- day strike, effective July 15 to July 16, 2010, after which a protracted action will be taken.
Going by their threat, the workers actually went on the strike which partly paralysed activities; especially at the agency’s headquarters and the various ports and the two administrative zones in Lagos and Port Harcourt.
The effect were already been felt in ship traffic, which would have been more grievous if the action was to extend beyond last Friday, as multinational shipping companies are already being inundated with alerts over the strike.
One of such information was stumbled upon by Shipping Position Weekly last Friday on the website of Gulf Agency Company (GAC) which erroneously posted that there was total work paralysis in Nigerian ports on account of dispute over salaries.
But, NPA branch president of SSACTAC, Comrade Omenzia Umar Jimoh told our correspondent shortly after the meeting last Friday that both the management and the union have signed a communiqué which will form the basis of the meeting at the federal ministry of labour and productivity on Monday (July 19, 2010).
“We have reached a truce, we have signed a communiqué and we have suspended the strike”, he announced. He equally added that the management of NPA has acceded to all the workers requests and has promised to implement all the demands before the end of August.
The workers’ demand include: payment of all arrears of monetization, recall of 13 employees who were erroneously laid -off inn 2008, payment of gratuity to retired staff, release of conditions of service, among others.
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