Dockworkers working with terminal operators in Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Rivers Port Complex, have  called on the Authority to bring more sea going vessels to the Eastern Ports to boost maritime activities in the region.
They noted that improved maritime activities in Eastern ports would create employments and increase the welfare and salaries of the workers.
Making the call in an exclusive interview at the weekend in Port Harcourt, a Trustee of the Dockworkers, and Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN), Comrade Harry Waite, said the more Federal Government and NPA bring vessels to the Ports, it would enhance and improve the living conditions of dockworkers in the state and beyond.
“We are trying to tell NPA to make sure that the Eastern Ports are empowered by bringing more vessels to the Ports, so that  dockworkers would see work to do in the terminals”.
“The more NPA brings vessels to the ports, the more dockworkers can work and earn their living”, Harry said.
While noting that Dockworkers are neither staff of government nor NPA, he said they are labour employers in private companies under the terminal operations operating in the Ports.
“Improvement in the life of the Dockworkers are in the hands of their employees, not government, and they can only improve when more vessels start coming to the four Eastern ports through the efforts of NPA.
“The more NPA brings in vessels to ports, the more the terminal operators will increase salaries and welfare of the dockworkers in the terminals”, he said.

Stories By: Chinedu Wosu