Why we suspended strike at APM Terminals, Apapa — MWUN

The Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) has said that APM Terminals acceptance to renew its workers retirement benefits and pay for child education support amongst other incentives is the major reason the union suspended a three-day warning strike embarked upon at the Lagos container port terminal recently.

Disclosing this exclusively to the Nigerian Tribune, President General of the Union, Comrade Adewale Adeyanju, listed the new conditions reached with the APM Terminals, Apapa before the workers called off the three days warning strike.

According to Comrade Adeyanju, “We are ready to picket any terminal operator that refuses to follow the principle of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). The CBA is an agreement between the terminal operator and the workers. If APM Terminals, Apapa did not shift ground concerning our demand, the strike action would have still been on. The terminal would have still been under lock and key.

“But APM Terminals shifted ground and acceded to our request. They accepted to increase the benefits of the workers. Like we used to have 13 per cent for three good years, but now it is 40 per cent. There were areas and other benefits that APM Terminals agreed to implement, which made us suspend the strike.

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“The APM Terminal workers retirement benefits which used to be N500,000 is now N1.5 milion. Before our strike, APM Terminals was not supporting its workers with any child education fee. It was after our strike that the agreement was reached that every worker gets child education funding. Now APM Terminal workers will be getting N150,000 each as funding for their children’s education. This is unprecedented. No worker at APM Terminals in the last 15 years ever got money for their children’s education.

“The workers have a savings scheme. Part of our agreement with APM Terminals is that the terminal operator will pay an additional 20 per cent on that saving scheme. This was also part of the reason we suspended our strike. The terminal operator accepted to bear the payment of 20 per cent on that savings scheme.

“We are still going to be asking for more. But for now, since the terminal operator has agreed to implement all the listed agreements, that’s why we agreed to suspend the strike in July this year.”

Recall that angry dockworkers under the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) in July shut down Nigeria’s largest container port terminal, APM Terminals, Apapa, crippling port operations at Nigeria’s premier port, Apapa port.