FG begs MWUN to suspend seaport strike

THE Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN), which was set to embark on a nationwide strike action from Tuesday, 6th of February over inability of government to repair the ports access roads, has called off its planned strike action following what the association labelled ‘effort by government to reach a truce with maritime workers’.

It will be recalled that the MWUN had issued a seven-day ultimatum for the removal of abandoned trucks on the Oshodi-Apapa express road, which leads to the Apapa and Tin-Can Ports; and demanded that access roads to the seaports be motorable, failing which members would embark on an indefinite strike, beginning from Tuesday, February 6, 2018.

But speaking to Journalists over the weekend, the President-General of MWUN, Comrade Adewale Adeyanju said the union has relaxed the ultimatum to shut the port since the federal government has intervened.

Adeyanju said the government has called for an enlarged meeting with other industry stakeholders to find a lasting solution to the dilapidated port access roads.

According to Adeyanju, “The federal government has contacted us. The meeting is to involve all the stakeholders in the maritime sector, the Federal Ministry of Transportation, Labour, Power Works and Housing.

“The Minister of Labour has intervened and sent a letter to us last week. We are only waiting for the date of the enlarged stakeholders meeting to be announced.”

Adeyanju who said the union will always have the interest of the country at heart urged the Federal Government to begin palliative work on the roads before full rehabilitation.

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“We are responsible labour organisation and the interest of the country must be in our heart all the time. What we are saying is that they should do palliatives on the roads while the other one is ongoing.

“They should remove all those trucks from the roads because it’s not every time they are lifting fuel or moving containers from the ports. Those articulated trucks have turned the road into mechanic workshops. When their trucks break down on the road, that is where they will repair it, thereby causing untold traffic gridlock for unsuspecting road users.

“We are waiting for the date of the enlarged stakeholders meeting, and since they have called us for a meeting, we have to relax our strike ultimatum. We are waiting for their date and time. The government knows we don’t make noise anyhow and when we threaten to strike, we mean it. Since they have called us, we will go there to listen to them,” Comrade Adeyanju explained to newsmen over the weekend.