A recent television interview has seen Senator Adams Oshiomhole, former Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) president, criticising the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) for extending its disagreement with Dangote Refinery into a nationwide shutdown of oil operations.
Oshiomhole described the union’s move as rash and damaging to the wider workforce, stressing that industrial actions should not inflict economic harm on uninvolved sectors.
“In seeking to protect a particular set of workers, you do not then risk the jobs of several other workers. The tools you deploy must not undermine other people’s livelihoods,” he said.
The senator condemned the decision to halt operations at facilities of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) and other firms over alleged anti-labour practices at the refinery, noting that the move triggered fuel scarcity across cities.
“I suddenly witnessed long queues at filling stations, and people came to me to ask why they were not at work. The reason was that PENGASSAN had decided that NNPC and several other companies should be shut down because of a problem in one refinery,” he said.
Citing his tenure at the NLC, Oshiomhole argued that disputes should remain limited to the concerned employer. “We had a big battle with Union Bank over married couples working together, but even then, we didn’t shut down all the banks,” he said.
He urged unions to consider the wider consequences of strikes, emphasising that such actions can harm ordinary Nigerians and small businesses dependent on fuel distribution.
“An employer has to exist, mature, and grow before being expected to guarantee stable jobs. Crippling a business before it finds its feet destroys the very jobs unions seek to protect,” Oshiomhole stated.
