The Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) has issued a 21 day ultimatum for the federal and state governments to compel and order shipping companies to provide holding bays for trucks parked indiscriminately along the port corridors.
In a statement issued and signed by President General, MWUN Comrade Adewale Adeyanju, over the weekend, accused some of shipping companies in the country of constituting nuisance and converting the major express roads to their holding bays and packing lots thereby hindering free flow of traffic.
The statement tagged “Inimical Activities Of Some Shipping Companies And Impact On Access Road Along Lagos Ports, seek to address the issue of lingering traffic within the corridors.
According to him, these shipping companies which include MAERSK LINE, PIL, MSC and MOL deliberately kept the trucks and their laden containers as means of attracting demurrage payment daily from already over burdened members, truck owners and their drivers.
The MWUN boss reiterated that at the expiration of the ultimatum without positive response from the government and the shipping line agency, the Nigerian Labour Congress affiliate shall have no other option than take appropriate and necessary industrial action to protect its members and other road users such as truck owners, drivers and the public at large.
“We are using this medium to call on the Federal Government and State Government to within the next 21 days call these companies to order and compel them to stop using their private businesses to cause public nuisance.
“If at the end of the 21 days notice the appropriate government agencies fail to address our demand, the Union shall have no other option than take appropriate and necessary industrial action to protect our members and other road users such as Truck owners, drivers and the public at large.
He further lamented that: “It is with a keen sense of duty and responsibility that we wish to bring to the public space the inimical activities of some shipping industry.
“Nigerians, especially Lagosians, are living witnesses to the continuous pains, danger, suffering, and intractable gridlock that heavy duty trucks have been causing over the years on the Oshodi-Apapa Expressway with its negative economic consequences. We cannot continue like this.
“As a major stakeholder in the Maritime sector whose members and activities have been negatively affected by the gridlock on the access roads to the ports especially in Tin-Can and Apapa ports, we have painstakingly studied the causes of the gridlock and have identified the following shipping companies as responsible for the gridlock.
“They operate along Oshodi-Apapa Expressway and do not have holding bays in absolute disregard to regulations and standards which provide that a shipping company must have a holding bay before going operational.
“In consequence, these companies have converted the major express road to their holding bays and packing lots thereby hindering free flow of traffic.
“As a responsible social partner, we urge all concerned government regulatory agencies to take urgent action and call the aforementioned companies to order, for the betterment of Nigerians, port users and to forestall any action by our members, “he stated.
By Roland Ekama
