The rift between oil workers and Dangote Refinery worsened on Monday, with the Nigeria Labour Congress directing its members to mobilise to join the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN’s nationwide strike.
For days now, Dangote Group and oil workers have been in stand-off, with the Nigerian Government trying to find a common ground.
A meeting is currently ongoing to find an amicable resolution to the impasse.
However, the NLC, in a directive signed by the National President, Comrade Joe Ajaero on Monday in Abuja, said the congress directed its affiliates and members nationwide to immediately mobilise for what it described as a “full-scale, decisive engagement” against the conglomerate’s alleged anti-worker practices.
"You are requested to commence, with immediate effect, preparation for a vigorous and comprehensive unionisation of all workers within every Dangote Group facility falling under your jurisdiction,” the memo read.
NLC said PENGASSAN and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) are merely symptoms of a deeper sickness – a capitalist pathology of union-busting, worker enslavement, and gross impunity that defines the Group’s industrial relations strategy.
It alleged that the Dangote refinery is not a workplace but a plantation of exploitation where workers' dignity is crushed.
The union said that Dangote Refinery is “a state within a state”, alleging that the company has repeatedly violated Section 40 of the Nigerian Constitution, flouted International Labour Organisation (ILO) Conventions 87 and 98, and treated national labour laws with “utter disdain.
"Their facilities are not workplaces but plantations of exploitation, where the dignity of the worker is systematically crushed to maximise profit for the few," he added.
