Segun Akanni, Toronto, Canada Petroleum tanker drivers under the aegis of Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers are embarking on an indefinite strike from tomorrow to protest their poor working conditions.
The union said its decision to embark on strike was taken after its central working committee’s meeting on Friday.
The tanker drivers lamented that despite their several appeals to the National Association of Road Transport Owners to start the process of renewing a collective bargaining agreement on working conditions for all drivers, no action had been taken on the issue.
In a communiqué issued at the end of the meeting, the union said several complaints regarding poor salaries, poor state of Nigerian roads, poor sleeping quarters for drivers and insecurity on the highways, among others, had not been addressed.
Part of the communiqué signed by the NUPENG President, Igwe Achese, read, “The CWC-in-Session considered inhumane, the refusal of the National Association of Road Transport Owners to commence negotiation with the union for the renewal of the expired Collective Bargaining Agreement on the working conditions of our tanker drivers in PTD Branch after several appeals and even ultimatum.”
The CWC-in-Session, therefore, resolved to give full backing to any industrial action the members in the sector might decide to take with effect from Monday, April 3, 2017.
To avert the pains and discomfort the action might cause to Nigerians, the leadership of NUPENG called on the Federal Government to urgently intervene in the situation to enable NARTO meets its obligations to tanker drivers.
