Economic Crisis: Maritime workers raise alarm over job security

•As employers declare redundancies, put staff on red alert

The nation’s Maritime industry like other sectors of the economy, is not immune from the downturn in Nigeria. Unfortunately, the major casualties are the employees.

In a chat with the President-General of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria, MWUN, Prince Adewale Adeyanju, he lamented that the crisis is taking a serious toll on port workers, saying some of the Shipping companies have already placed staff on red alert.

Redundancies

For the past year, since the new government came in, things have been tough. The exchange rate has made things so tough. Investors in the Maritime sector have grounded operations. In some companies, there have been redundancies. You know we have four branches, it is when the Port is in full swing that you will talk of membership. If the port is not operating well or booming and the harsh economy is affecting everyone, things are tough with all our management because some of them have resorted to Collective Bargaining Agreement, CBA.

The rule that established the CBA is when things are not moving well, what you need to do is to call all stakeholders and agree on how to manage the issues.

Vessel that used to come with about 4,000 containers has been reduced to 300 containers. Can you see the gap? It is affecting the dockworkers and shipping workers because we work on a daily basis, on payment by tonnage. The way it is now, the economy has dealt with all the workers in the maritime sector.

There is no way I can give you the figure. I can only cite a terminal operator that has penciled down 300 workers for redundancy. That is TICT, one of the prominent terminals. It used to have 1000 workers and above. Hardly have we seen three vessels in one terminal in a month. So, it is as bad as that. If we tell you 200, 500 workers or this is the number that has been penciled down for redundancy, we don’t know what other people are still doing about that. I can tell you that some of the terminal operators and some shipping companies have placed our members on red alert that if the economic downturn occasioned by foreign exchange crisis continues, there is no how they will continue to be paid salary.

That is why we are trying to go back to CBA and ask for a review of what CBA says. This is where we find ourselves. It is only God that can save us and allow the dollar to work hand in hand with Naira. If you go to the market place now and you want to buy tomatoes or pepper, they will tell you the dollar has increased. What has the dollar got to do with pepper sellers? Everyone has now tied their problems on Naira and dollar. It is as bad as that. There is no price control any longer. Everyone is doing whatever they like. You know Nigerians, whatever goes up doesn’t come down except it is an aircraft.

Go to the Ports and take an inventory of the situation. A terminal used to have close to 15 vessels in a month, now it is just two or three. In some months, you don’t see. It is as bad as that. It is not about redundancy. Even the workers know that things are not going on well. Some of the shipping companies have been grounded. Some of those small shipping companies are not even coming, talk more of the bigger ones. What is the saving grace now is that some of the shipping companies are into terminal operations? That is why we can say our members still have hope. Go to Tin Can, go to Apapa. ENL is one of the prominent terminals that used to have close to 30 vessels in a month. Now, you hardly see three vessels in that place. The place is like a stadium where you can play football. I think government should look inward and see how they can salvage what they call tsunami in the ports. If I tell you all is well, I think I am not helping myself.

Tally Clerks

We have tried all we could and government too has realised that there is a lot of discrepancies between the stakeholders and tally clerks. But we have done what we could to ensure that government resuscitates the  gangway men and the tally clerks by bringing them back. That is the position of the union. A  committee was set up to review it and look at the objectives of bringing them in, the positive or negative impact it may have for the stakeholders. The committee has submitted the report before the Ministry of Blue Economy; we are now waiting for their recommendations so that we can bring them back. It has a lot of advantages. All over the world, there is no way you will jettison tally clerks and onboard security and say you don’t need them on board the vessels again. They are under the International Maritime Organization, IMO, and the law is clear on that. Nigeria cannot tell the other maritime countries that she does not need tally clerks, gangway men and onboard security in the vessels.

Labour relations at Lekki port

It has been fantastic. We have signed our Collective Bargaining Agreement, CBA, between workers as represented by the union and the management. That has confirmed that we have a robust relationship with them. The workers are not now in port operations. Majority of the workers in that place were picked from the whole ports. We have a very good relationship with the management, but we don’t know tomorrow because the management can change. The way it is now, they have aligned with the system, the workers and that of the union. We are on course with one another.

Access roads

The only thing I can say is to thank the Minister of Works because I was in Onne about a month ago and I could see the level of the road. They are constructing a very massive road in Onne Port. Over the years, we have been crying that the road leading to Onne Port is a dead trap and impassable. But the way it is now, I give kudos to the Minister of Works who is an engineer. Being an engineer has paved the way for the kind of construction that is going on in Onne. We want them to extend that little gesture to Warri, including Calabar Port. They are ancient ports. Those are the first ports in Nigeria. The roads leading to those ports should not be denied a facelift. I commend the Minister of Works. If we had his type over the years, I don’t think Nigerian roads would be as bad as they are. He is trying his best. I can attest to what I saw in Onne, fantastic six lanes left and right from Port Harcourt.

New minimum wage delay

On the restiveness of workers over the delay in concluding the minimum wage, Adeyanju  added There is nothing that we can do, other than to continue to appeal and explain the situation to them  (workers) to take it easy. You know the process of sending it to the National Assembly is still on and I am sure the National Assembly is waiting for Mr President’s final nod on the matter. We have been exercising patient for many months now.

It is like the story of the tortoise that was incarcerated for years and when his incarceration remaining one or two days for him to come out, he started shouting that he should be released.

We have been telling our members to exercise patience. We know some of them are restive, we can assure them that no matter how long, and there will be arrears at the end of day.