MWUN Takes Bold Stand To End Exploitation At Melsmore Marine

 

In a dramatic turn of events shaking the Nigerian marine ecosystem, the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN), led by the fiery Comrade Francis Bunu Abi, this Sunday descended on Melsmore Marine Nigeria Limited’s Lagos facility with a powerful message: enough is enough!

 

After months of simmering tension and a bitter clash over the company’s refusal to release crucial workers’ pension records and Collective Bargaining Agreements, MWUN is flexing its muscle , launching an all-out campaign to unionize Melsmore’s seafarers and smash decades of neglect and injustice.

 

Industry insiders reveal that countless seafarers have long suffered in silence, enduring hazardous working conditions, paltry pay, and utter disregard for their health and safety onboard ships and brutal working environments at sea , a brutal reality the maritime powers hoped to keep hidden.

 

But Comrade Bunu, a veteran sailor-turned-labour warrior, has drawn a red line. With steely resolve, he vows that the era of exploitation is over — and anyone who fails to respect global maritime labour standards will face the full wrath of the union.

 

In a recent tense truce meeting, MWUN secured a hard-won agreement for unionization , a historic breakthrough that promises to upend the industry’s rotten status quo and put workers firmly back in control.

 

The Union’s upcoming “National Joint Industrial Council” (NJIC) guidebook looms as a game-changer, poised to revolutionize working conditions and enforce strict worker protections across Nigeria’s ports and waters.

 

As this maritime battle heats up, one thing is clear: the fight for seafarers’ dignity has reached a boiling point — and the union’s thunderous call for justice will reverberate far beyond the docks of Lagos.

 

According to a statement signed by Comrade John Kennedy Ikemefuna, Head of Media, MWUN , recalled that the face-off that ensued between the Union and Melsmore Marine Limited some months back, given the failed request made by the Union that the management of the organization should provide its employees current Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) and the monthly record of Pensions remittances (PFA’s) of the workers has taken a new and positive dimension.

 

The statement added that “Having gone past the initial feud stage, a meeting of truce had been held by the leadership of Maritime Workers Union and Management of Melsmore Marine Ltd and had struck an understanding that the Union’s Seafarers in their employ must be unionized in conformity with regulations of Maritime standard of operations in Nigeria and globally.

 

“It was also widely observed that most Seafarers in the country are poorly catered for on board vessels; and poorly remunerated, even as far as being subjected to work under hazardous conditions with little or no safety and health facility on board, thereby jeopardizing their health with various communicable diseases, which had in most cases claimed the lives of sailors and crews while on sea.

 

Comrade Bunu, whose deep knowledge and concern on the aforementioned sad conditions of the Seafarers across the country has vowed that such impunity of absolute negligence on Seafarers within the Maritime space in Nigeria by employers of labour in the Maritime industry will no longer be tolerated in any ramification.

 

“The astute labour leader, Maritime Expert and Veteran Sailor, says this period is a new order in the Maritime Industry and that every employer of labour must comply with all global safety standards on board vessels, and most importantly on workers’ welfare which cannot be overemphasized; and that any employer found wanting henceforth in this regard will be appropriately dealt with according to Maritime Labour rules and regulations.

 

“The MWUN PG, however addressed the workers, intimating them that their process of unionization is ongoing, assuring them of safe landing as there wouldn’t be any form of intimidation or harassment of any sort from any quarter both in the Union and Melsmore management.

 

“Comrade Bunu, however, says that the Unionization of the workers would also produce a “Work Guidelines and Welfare package” book, known as the “NJIC” (National Joint Industrial Council) for safe and seamless operations in the sector, as this is also applicable to all the branches of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria across board,”the statement stressed.