Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) has condemned the alleged victimisation and severance of its union officials in the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC)

Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) has  condemned the alleged victimisation and severance of its union officials in the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC).
It stressed that Nigerians should hold the oil company’s management  responsible for the industrial action that would follow if SPDC failed to reinstate the union officials.
The union, in a statement signed by its Deputy President, Comrade John Eddy Ossai and acting General Secretary, Comrade Isaac Aberare, reiterated that the NUPENG-SPDC caretaker committee chairman, Comrade Enomate Kingsley and 16 other union members affected by the severance should immediately be reinstated in the interest of industrial peace.
According to the union, the decision to dissolve the executive committee of Shell branch of NUPENG for anti-union activities and set up a caretaker committee to run the affairs of the union in the interim was taken in line with its constitution.
“The refusal by the management of SPDC to recognise the caretaker committee  and the planned  action to outsource the fire department where the majority of the workers were based, notwithstanding the union’s vehement opposition to the plan, would be resisted,”  the union said.
To actualise its plan, the SPDC management transferred the former chairman, Comrade Fidelis Okandeji, expelled by the union for anti-union activities and his loyalists, out of the department, leaving members of the caretaker committee vulnerable while hiding under the guise of divestment and management business decision to severe the union officials,” NUPENG added.