The Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) is set to engage management of Intels Nigeria Limited on Wednesday , over the recent disengagement of about 600 workers.
The maritime union had issued seven- day ultimatum to Intels Nigeria Limited to withdraw all letters of termination and redundancy issued to 600 workers of the organisation.
In a letter signed by the Secretary General of MWUN, Felix Akingboye, the union explained that Associate Maritime Service (AMS), a subsidiary of the organisation, had unilaterally disengaged the workers without recourse to the union.
As a result, Intels and its subsidiary has been asked to recall the affected workers to duty, failure to abide by the notice, which the union said would compel it to withdraw its service from its terminal.
But speaking with newsmen on Monday in Lagos, President General of MWUN, Comrade Adewale Adeyanju accused the concessionaire of playing pranks with the union and workers.
Adeyanju also disclosed that the concessionaire has finally written to the union for a meeting slated for Wednesday in Lagos
While disclosing what initially aggreviated workers protest recently, Adeyanju alleged that “Management of Intels tried to play smart by way of terminating the appointment of AMS.
The union leader further noted that “We have received a letter from the management of Intels , calling for a meeting on Wednesday at 10 in Lagos.
“We are going to be there and if what they are going to tell us is not going to be in line with the decision of the workers, then we will commence on the strike.
“And that is they way to go because ordinarily, negotiation is between Intels and AMS and there is nothing separation of one from the other.
“AMS is a subsidiary of Intels but because you are trying to downsize you want us to discuss with different body entirely which is AMS and we all know that AMS is part of Intels and we all know that if any of redundancy is taking place at Intels AMS is always involved.
He also pointed out that the concessionaire are the arrowhead of every negotiation and must be seen to be transparent.
“They did that to play smart between the union , the workers and management themselves, so when you terminate the appointment of your subsidiary who takes control of the negotiation. This is what I want to know. Who is fooling who?
“Is it not the same Intels that is suppose to sit down with us alongside AMS in resolving this matter”, he queried.
By Roland Ekama
