Oil Workers Strike: One Too Many

Amidst rigorous denials to embark on
a three-day warning strike to press
home their grievances against government and some stake-holder companies, oil workers last Monday withdrew their services. Expectedly, the long queues at filling stations re-surfaced while black market operators capitalized on the situation to short-change helpless Nigerians.
Under the aegis of Petroleum, and Natural Gas Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) and the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas, the oil workers shocked Nigerians with their action. Both unions had on Friday last week denied any intent to proceed on strike in Rivers.
The Unions’ denial followed last Wednesday’s long queues at filling stations on account of panic buying of petroleum products in Port Harcourt. Infact, the Port Harcourt Zonal Chairman of PENGASSAN, Mr. Azubuike Azubuike was quoted as saying his union did not plan to embark on the rumoured three-day strike. Port Harcourt Zonal Chairman of NUPENG, Mr. Godwin Eruba corroborated his PENGASSAN colleagues stand, saying “NUPENG has no plan to embark on strike”.
That is why it came to many as a huge surprise when it was announced that both unions had on Monday embarked on strike. Expectedly, petroleum products marketers capitalized on the strike to hoard their products after over-night sales to black market operators.
Between Monday and yesterday, motorists and other petroleum products users spent as much as N3,500 to purchase 20 litre jerrican of fuel that should normally sell for less than N2,000 from the black market as most filling stations refused to sell to the public.
At a time when labour is making a strong case for a drastic drop in pump price of fuel, on account of the steady slide in price of crude oil, the action of the marketers amounts to economic sabotage and must be condemned.
It is indeed unimaginable that Nigerians could deliberately inflict such manner of pains on fellow citizens to oil their greedy appetites. The Tide condemns the marketers’ profiteering tendencies and their concomitant effects on the citizenry and do urge them to open the filling stations.
Even so, the strike of the oil workers is ill-timed and smacks of insensitivity to the plight of the ordinary Nigerian. Whatever their grievances against government and other stakeholder companies are should have been handled in a more mature way. The constant recourse to strike to press home their demands is  indeed unpopular, retrogressive and injurious to the fragile economy.
We expect unions to see strikes only as a last resort and not in the near frequent manner it is employed by PENGASSAN. In the last three years alone, Nigerians have lost count of the number of strikes the oil workers have embarked upon for one grievance or the other.
Even more injurious is the timing of the strike, coming barely a week to Christmas, when families are preparing for the challenges of yuletide. Considering the weak purchasing power of the average Nigerian, to contribute to their woes through fuel price hike is the worst Christmas gift Nigerians desire from oil workers.
In like manner, The Tide urges government to properly address the concerns of the workers to avoid the untold hardship constantly inflicted on Nigerians. We urge both the government, the affected companies and the unions to return to the negotiating table in the interest of peace and progress.
The absence of that approach makes the oil workers’ strike at this time and season of the year, one too many.