PENGASSAN threatens nationwide strike

The Petroleum and Senior Staff Association of Nigeria on Friday threatened to embark on a nationwide strike if the Ministry of Petroleum Resources and the Petroleum Equalisation Funds Management Board failed to reverse the six-month suspension of its Branch Chairman, Mr. Mohammed Gambo.The association also said the suspension of its last strike on Thursday was to allow relevant authorities to rescind its earlier decision on Gambo.A statement by the association on Friday said the body had notified its Petroleum Equalisation Fund (management board) on the development.The statement said, The association wishes to put all stakeholders and indeed all Nigerians on notice that its National Executive Council meeting will hold on Wednesday, November 30, 2011 by which time PEF is expected to have reversed its six-month suspension without pay of the branch chairman, otherwise, the NEC will be invited to declare an indefinite national strike.It further said, The suspension gives the Ministry of Petroleum Resources and particularly the Executive Secretary of PEF, the rare opportunity to rescind the ill-motivated six-month suspension without pay of the Branch Chairman, Mr. Mohammed Gambo.The union also said the management of PEF had on November 15 written to Gambo suspending him for six months without pay for leading members to protest against anti-labour practices of the PEF executive secretary.The strike had been embarked upon to protest the unjust six months suspension of Gambo.The strike had led to fuel queues in some parts of the country, a development the statement said, was wrongly attributed to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.The fact, however, is that the action by PENGASSAN PEF (MB) Branch had caused marketers to desist from lifting products as there were no PEF officials to process their bridging claims and so the fuel scarcity experienced over the last few days was not due to any act by NNPC, the statement noted.The decision to suspend the strike, the body said, followed the intervention by numerous stakeholders, asking the body to mitigate the suffering many Nigerians had been made to undergo in procuring petroleum products.
Click here to read full news..