NUEE Resumes Picketing Of PHED, May 15

The National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) has threatened to resume picketing of the Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company  (PHED) if the company refuses to take actions on workers’ welfare and other contentious issues.
State Organising Secretary of NUEE, Comrade Innocent Douglas, while speaking to newsmen in Port Harcourt, said refusal by PHED authorities to allow unionisation  of workers had resulted in slave labour, downward review of salaries and unfair sack of workers among other unacceptable situations.
The union also accused the power distribution company of defrauding innocent consumers  via estimated billing such that poor consumers now pay for darkness instead of light.
He warned that the company had been given till May 15 to resolve all contentious issues or be ready for another round of picketing.
“This time, it’s not going to be the union alone but all the industrial unions under the United Labour Congress (ULC).
“Our drum has already been rolled out and our machineries have been oiled”, he said.
He explained that the picketing was suspended because of the intervention of security agencies in the state and pointed out that the next round of picketing would be serious.
“We give them between now and 15th of this month as being promised. They know that their personality is at stake. If between now and 15th May, they fail to settle these issues, we will picket them again”, he maintained.
PHED has not been having it easy with its workers and consumers as expression of dissatisfaction through strike has become common within the past two months across the four states of Rivers, Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom and Cross River, where the company covers.

Chris Oluoh