The National President of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), Prince Akporeha, has in a new interview pledged its loyalty to the Nigeria Labour Congress and any step that the NLC decides to take. Prince Akporeha expressed that there may be shortage of fuel next week as his union is an affiliate of the NLC and that it would comply fully with any directive the NLC gave.
He said, “Are we not an affiliate of the NLC? Is NUPENG on its own? Of course we are with the NLC.” The Federal Government on Friday obtained an order from the National Industrial Court restraining the organised labour from embarking on strike. The NLC, the Trade Union Congress and the United Labour Congress had, however, insisted on embarking on the strike, claiming that they had not been served with court processes. When reminded of the fact that a court had ordered unions not to go on strike, the NUPENG president said, “We are waiting for directives.”The organised labour had fixed November 6, 2018 for the commencement of an indefinite strike over the failure of the Federal Government to approve the N30,000 it is demanding as minimum wage. Last week, the Nigeria Governors Forum said it could only pay N22, 500 as minimum wage, a position which was rejected by the unions.
Photo Credit: Getty
