Petrol Station Workers (PSW), a branch of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) in Warri, Delta state has threatened to shut down all filling stations nationwide.
This threat, which came over the weekend, is due to the lingering crisis in the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN, which the union said had stalled negotiation for improved working condition for members.
In a statement, PSW lamented that members are currently being paid between N5,000 and N8,000 as salaries monthly by IPMAN members-owned filling stations, describing it as “modern day slavery.”
The chairman of the union, Mr. Roland Abu, in his statement said: “The Petrol Station Workers cannot continue to watch the damage the crisis has caused on its members in the depots and filling stations across the country, who are in the chain of petroleum dispensing in the country. The lingering crisis has affected our members adversely, as they are being treated by their IPMAN employers like slaves due to the factionalisation in the body.
“Because of the division and protracted crisis in IPMAN, Petrol Station Workers have not been able to negotiate conditions of service for its members. Currently, our members are paid pittance as salaries ranging from N5,000 to N8,000 a month by IPMAN members-owned filling stations, which is modern day slavery.”
“The Petrol Station Workers expresses disgust at the outright refusal of the IPMAN past leadership to negotiate conditions of service for its members who sell fuel to consumers at filling stations. The lingering crisis in IPMAN has been responsible for the nonchalant attitude by IPMAN leadership, despite series of attempts by NUPENG, our parent body for them to see reason to put up conditions of service for our members. It is against this backdrop that the leadership of the Petrol Station Workers Branch will embark on down-tooling and shut down of filling stations, immediately NUPENG embarks on the nation-wide strike over the lingering crisis in IPMAN.
“The PSW members’ nation-wide will shut-down, once the strike starts and make sure it is enforced at the depots and filling stations nation-wide.”
