The Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC) on Thursday met with the leadership of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) but failed to convince the Union to ask its members to return to work at Nigeria’s largest container terminal, APM Terminals, Apapa.
Recall that workers under the aegis of the MWUN very early on Wednesday morning shut down the APM Terminals over issues bordering on the refusal of the terminal operator to review the workers’ Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) which is usually reviewed annually.
Speaking to Tribune Online shortly after the meeting with the NSC Boss, the President-General of MWUN, Comrade Adewale Adeyanju explained that the NSC Executive Secretary, Honourable Emmanuel Jime was at the Union headquarters to discuss issues surrounding the strike and possible ways to resolve it, but that the Union told him that unless APM Terminals calls for a meeting on the CBA, the strike action will continue.
According to Comrade Adeyanju, “The strike is still on. We are yet to resume. The NSC Executive Secretary just came as an elderly statesman in the industry to see how he can broker peace between us and the APM Terminals.
“But the strike is still on. We are yet to reconvene to decide whether we will be calling off the strike. The terminal operator has not even been encouraging.
“The Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Mohammed Bello-Koko has been on this issue for the past three days, but the terminal operator has been adamant. They (APM Terminals) are even telling us that is it NPA that will pay the workers their salaries? That is to tell you that these people have no regard for anybody in this country.
“What they cannot accept in their own country, they are doing it to us here. When impunity is the order of the day, this is what happens. It’s such a shame that APM Terminals has no regard for constituted authority.”
With the strike action extending into its second day, clearing agents have started lamenting about the number of charges that are accumulating on trapped cargoes.
Speaking with Tribune Online, Chairman of the Save Nigeria Freight Forwarders Importers and Exporters Coalition (SNFFIEC), Chief Osita Chukwu explained that the enormity of the strike is yet to dawn on cargo owners until it is finally called off.
In the words of Chief Osita Chukwu, “All the meetings that are being held now are centred on calling off of the strike. Nobody is talking about the charges that are accumulating.
“Demurrage and storage charges are there, nobody is talking about them. Everybody is concerned about calling off the strike. By the time the strike is called off, the enormity of the charges that have accumulated will now dawn on everybody.
“By that time, another round of agitation will now be on who is going to pay such charges? We just hope that the terminal operator will waive storage charges 100 per cent. We already know the shipping companies won’t waive demurrages, but if the terminal operator can waive storage charges, then the effect won’t be too hard on the importers.”
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