Oil workers strike causes fuel panic

LAGOS (AFP) – The Nigerian oil workers union has launched a strike over a dispute with Shell, sparking fears of petrol shortages and causing long lines at stations Wednesday in Lagos.

NUPENG — the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers — is the smaller of Nigeria’s two oil industry unions and represents blue-collar workers, including tanker drivers.
The strike was said to be limited to petrol deliveries and was not expected to affect oil production.
“We commenced a nationwide strike yesterday over a labour dispute our union has with Shell,” said Tokunbo Korodo, an official with the NUPENG union.

“The strike will definitely cause scarcity of petrol as our members have stopped loading from the depots … The strike will only affect distribution of petrol in the country. It has nothing to do with exports of crude.”
Korodo refused to disclose details of the dispute, but said members were picketing the Lagos office of the Anglo-Dutch oil giant.
Local media reported that the dispute centred on a union official’s alleged anti-union activities and Shell’s refusal to recognise a caretaker committee set up to replace him following his expulsion.
Korodo said the government had invited union leaders and Shell representatives to a meeting in Abuja to resolve the dispute. A Shell spokesman declined to provide details.
The action came barely two weeks after a week-long general strike and street protests over soaring fuel prices.

The strike was called off on January 16 after President Goodluck Jonathan reduced the price of petrol per litre to 97 naira (0.47 euros, $0.60).
The government had scrapped fuel subsidies on January 1, causing petrol prices to more than double from 65 naira per litre.
Most in the country of some 160 million people live on less than two dollars a day, and Nigerians, weary after years of blatant corruption, viewed the subsidies as their only benefit from the nation’s oil wealth. (Vanguard)