Another crisis is brewing in the nation’s oil and gas sector following an alleged plan by the management of Chevron to sack about 500 workers in one full sweep.
The oil workers have already gone spiritual with series of prayer sessions aimed at averting the impending shut down of the oil and gas sector if the threat to sack the workers sails through.
National President of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) told Newsmen that organized labour, especially those operating within the sector will not accept loss of job by their members under any guise.
Johnson said even though measures have already been put in place to avert the crisis, they will not fold their arms and watch Nigerians lose their jobs without due process.
He said: “For example, we have a case at hand now where Chevron, through HM15, is trying to lay off about 500 of our members and if they do that, there will be issues. Prayer session has already been started. We are also sensitizing Nigerians ahead of time that there is crisis looming. so, we must put our heads together to see how we can avert this.”
He also warned against plans by the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) and the Oil Producers Trade Section (OPTS),aimed at reducing the long contracting cycle in the nation’s oil and gas sector, adding that both unions in the sector has already made their position on the issue known and are taking measure to tackle the issue.
Johnson said: “If you are going to formulate policies for the smooth running of the sector, we should be carried along because we are stakeholders. There is need for us to sit down and discuss so that instead of us being reactive, we will be proactive to see how we can avert any crisis because we know the volatility of the oil and gas sector.
“If we decide to shut down the system, we know the repercussions and the effect. We know that Nigerians will suffer because there will be long queues, there will be crisis and uncertainties. But we also don’t want that to happen. So, we saw the publication that NCDMB, OPTS and minister of state for petroleum that they have taken a decision about contract staffing and we issued a statement that it is not going to be acceptable.
“By God’s grace, NUPENG and PENGASSAN are going to have a meeting. If you are going to take any action that you know is going to affect our members, what’s wrong in calling us together, let’s look at it together. It is unfortunate that most of these things are being done by the Nigerian counterpart. The essence of local content act was to allow Nigerians to take over the industry
“We have issued a counter statement and if they want to try PENGASSAN and NUPENG, I wish them all the best. But we will not accept it. We will not fold our hands to issues that will be of benefit to all Nigerians. For us, that issue of contract circle and SLA is dead on arrival.”
