Another Looming Strike by PENGASSAN

Solomon Elusoji examines the issues behind the threat by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria to embark on strike

On July 26, at the end of its Central Working Committee (CWC) meeting in Abuja, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) resolved to embark on a nationwide strike if some industrial issues, especially anti-labour practices by some employers in the oil and gas industry, were not addressed within 21 days.

A statement signed by the union’s National Public Relations Officer, Comrade Fortune Obi stated that“PENGASSAN in the last three years has not only been excessively stretched but equally unnecessarily over-burdened and is fast running out of patience over the loss of will by various managements to attend to industrial/welfare issues.” Obi said that particularly frustrating is “the sustained, deliberate and indiscriminate redundancies, sack, casualisation, ill-treatment, adverse work condition, incessant disagreement to collective bargain resolutions and other anti-labour practices against our members by these managements without recourse to extant labour laws.”

PENGASSAN identified, in particular, the provocative stance of managements of the Fugro, Sterling Global, Indorama Petrochemical Company, Baker Hughes/General Electric, Universal Energy, Frontier Energy, VamOnne, Neconde Energy and Obi Jackson Group, SDF, Ciscon, Tecon, Obax, Pan Ocean, NNPC Retail Limited, Exxon-Mobil and Petrobras.
To this end, the PENGASSAN spokesperson said that the association has directed the Zonal Executive Councils, in the four zones of Port Harcourt, Lagos, Kaduna and Warri, to commence systematic mobilisation of its members for the planned action which will commence, if demands were not met by August 16.

PENGASSAN’s struggle with these oil companies have come at a period when the business of oil, itself, is under attack and companies are scrambling for survival. Last month, the Chief Executive Officer at Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Ben Van Beurden, said his next car would be electric, an announcement which spoke volume about the future of fossil fuels. In addition to the decline in global oil prices, firms have taken the route of downsizing staff and reducing costs, a development, which has secured the enmity of labour unions like PENGASSAN.

When THISDAY contacted Obi, he said that the companies were not doing enough to align with the union’s interests. “Each of these companies is in the know of how far we’ve gone into our discussions,” he said, “they’ve been part of these deliberations, so they know where they have erred and the issues under contention.”

He added: “What we have done is that we have passed our message, simple and clear. What we have also done is that we have created an opportunity for continuous dialogue. We are not closing our doors; we are still open for discussion. But at the expiration of the 21 days, there is nothing PENGASSAN can do but embark on the strike.”

When this reporter asked whether the failure of one company to re-sit for negotiations would still trigger the strike action, Obi was coy and unambiguous. But if that is the case, then the strike action might as well start tomorrow, because, after this reporter tried to contact representatives of some of the listed companies, the general feel was that they were not (or could not, due to legal bottlenecks) ready to negotiate.

Take, for example, Neconde Energy’s longstanding battle with the labour union. On May 15, PENGASSAN had led a picketing of Neconde premises in Lagos and Warri, over alleged grievances, which include, among others, non-payment of staff salaries. However, on May 18, after the picketing, officials of PENGASSAN and Neconde met and reached and, apparently, came to a friendly agreement. it was agreed that nobody will be victimized on the ground of the industrial action. But, by June 1, Neconde allegedly terminated the employment of five members on based on the industrial actions. This development led to PENGASSAN issuing a 72-hour ultimatum calling on Neconde to reverse its termination decisions or face monumental consequences. But Neconde fired back with a lawsuit.

“There is a court injunction, so I wouldn’t be able to comment on the issue,” a Neconde spokesman told THISDAY, responding to PENGASSAN’s 21 days ultimatum. This suggests, of course, that negotiation with the union is not exactly top priority as they both await the sound of the gavel.

Meanwhile, PENGASSAN is also miffed at the government, particularly on certain provisions of the just passed Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB), which overlooked labour unions in the membership composition of the governing boards of the regulatory entities in the bill. Obi explained that PENGASSAN is a body of professionals who are best equipped to access and make inputs to policies in the petroleum industry by the virtue of their positions and in-depth knowledge in the Industry.

“We know where the challenges are in the oil industry, so anybody who wants to make policies that would bring better fortunes to the country will need to engage the labour sector,” he told THISDAY. “It’s a system that we have been in all our life. We are not against the bill, but what we are saying is that industry players must be carried along.”

According to Obi, the government agreeing to discuss and engage the union on the PIGB bill is also part of the conditions that must be met for the strike to be averted. “Whoever wants to run the industry can continue to do that, but our members will stop to support the process after 21 days. So it is an opportunity for the government to come and address. We are an association of mature, experienced professionals; we are not an association of touts; it is where you have the best brains in Nigeria,” he said.

Although Obi declined to comment on the length of the proposed strike action (“The CWC and the NEC will be meeting from time to time,” he said), a strike action from PENGASSAN will adversely affect oil production in the country, especially the functioning of the refineries, and might create a negative ripple effect that spreads to the downstream sector.

But, according to analysts that spoke to this reporter, PENGASSAN should not be taken seriously, since it would be difficult to enforce compliance among its members over a stretched duration, an effect that will no doubt weaken its negotiating strength with the powers that be.
At a time when the country’s economy is just trying to recover from a recessionary slump, a PENGASSAN strike should, by all means, be avoided, but the answers to the union’s demands are fraught with numerous complications that are beyond the scope of a 21-day ultimatum.