Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG and its Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Association, PENGASSAN, counterpart, have threatened to shut down the nation’s Petroleum industry over alleged plans by Chevron Nigeria Limited to sack thousands of workers from its operations nationwide.

Leaders of NUPENG and PENGASSAN have already directed their members nationwide to prepare to withdraw their services nationwide any moment from now, warning that they would not accept any sack of workers. The two unions in the oil sector specifically called on the National Assembly, Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Department of State Services DSS, and other relevant authorities to prevail on Chevron Nigeria Limited, to immediately stop the plan to sack workers in its operations nationwide to avoid industrial unrest.

NUPENG and PENGASSAN, named the affected workers as thousands of their members who are contract workers on M15 and H15 Contracts in Lagos, Warri and Escravos, saying it is shocking that Chevron is planning to sack the workers in spite of the ongoing intervention by the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment as well as the established Labour Contract Staffing Guidelines in the oil and gas industry.

•Excerpted from a Vanguard report