Fuel Scarcity: Oil workers suspend strike
Nigerian oil workers suspended
their five-day strike Friday after a meeting with the petroleum minister,
Diezani Alison-Madueke.
President Goodluck Jonathan had
waded into the crisis Friday, directing Mrs. Alison-Madueke to immediately
convene a meeting with striking oil workers’ unions.
The meeting which began in the
afternoon was ongoing at the presidential villa as of 7p.m. Friday.
The meeting came as scarcity of
fuel bit harder across the country.
PREMIUM TIMES understood that the
president had directed Mrs. Alison-Madueke to dialogue with the leaders of the
two main oil workers unions, the Petroleum and National Gas Senior Staff
Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, and National Union of Petroleum and Natural
Gas Workers, NUPENG, over their grievances.
The oil workers had downed tools
over the management of their pensions.
The unions also demanded the
government to take Turn Around Maintenance of Nigeria’s four refineries more
seriously.
Other demands of the unions
include the need for increased allocation of crude oil for local refining to
help reduce the growing reliance on importation of petroleum products for
domestic consumption.
“Government has given a
commitment to resolve all issues particularly the issue of Turn Around
Maintenance and increment of allocation of crude oil,” the secretary of
PENGASSAN, Bayo Oluwoshile told PREMIUM TIMES.
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