Saturday, December 16, 2017

PENGASSAN To Begin Strike Monday As Talks Collapse

The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria will on Monday embark on an indefinite strike action.
This followed the stalemate in the peace meeting the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, brokered between the union and Neconde Energy Limited.
PENGASSAN and Neconde have been embroiled in crisis over allegation of anti-worker practices.
PENGASSAN, the umbrella body of senior workers in the oil and gas sector, alleged that the management of Neconde wrongly terminated the employment of some of its workers, threatening to go on strike if the sacked workers were not recalled within 72 hours.
The matter caused Kachikwu to initiate a meeting between the two warring bodies in Abuja during the week, but the meeting ended in a deadlock.
This was contained in a statement by PENGASSAN, signed by its Public Relations Officer, Fortune Obi.
The statement said: “Following the failure of the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, to settle the rift between this body (PENGASSAN) and Neconde, the management of PENGASSAN has agreed to start the strike on Monday night (December 18th, 2017).
“Prior to the strike, PENGASSAN will hold an emergency Central Working Committee (CWC) meeting on Monday morning, which will be followed with announcement of strike on the night of Monday.”