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By Gold Okafor
The Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) has directed its members across the country to mobilise and ensure full compliance with the directive of organised labour to embark on a nationwide strike starting from midnight of 3rd October 2023.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelThe Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union (TUC) on Tuesday, September 26, rose from their joint meeting and announced their plan to commence an indefinite strike nationwide over the failure of the Federal Government to meet their demands on mitigating the sufferings of Nigerians as a result of petrol subsidy removal.
In a statement released on Thursday, September 28, jointly signed by NUPENG National President, Comrade Williams Akporeha and General Secretary, Comrade Afolabi Olawale, the union said that as an affiliate of NLC, it would fully comply with the resolution of the joint NEC meeting of the Congress and TUC that workers should embark on industrial action.
READ ALSO: Subsidy Removal: NLC, TUC To Begin Nationwide Indefinite Strike Oct 3
The members of NUPENG include petroleum tanker drivers whose members drive petrol and diesel tankers that distribute the products across Nigeria. Others are Petrol Station Workers (PSW), Liquified Petroleum Gas Retailers (LPGAR) and all other allied wokers in the petroleum products distribution value chain.
The leadership of NUPENG said it found the development so disturbing and unfortunate, that the federal government and other tiers of government “are so insensitive to the excruciating and debilitating socio-economic pains Nigerians are passing through as a result of very harsh and sudden economic policies taken by this administration without any accompanying socio-economic policies to ameliorate and cushion the immediate effects and impacts those difficult and harsh policies are having on citizenry.”
NUPENG said it is aware of the huge impacts a 24-hour industrial action by organised labour can have on businesses and the socio-economic lives of the nation, but unfortunately, the government’s actions and inactions are inextricably forcing them to take this painful route of last resort to demand for the needful.
It added that: “NUPENG as a responsive affiliate union of the Nigeria Labour Congress, will fully comply with the resolution of the joint NEC meeting and will direct the four zonal councils to mobilize its members in the formal and informal sectors to shut down their services and it will be effective on midnight of Tuesday, 3rd October, 2023.”
