In a bid to know the date of members under the employment of Tin Can Island Container Terminal (TICT) and Cyrille Bollore, the leadership of Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) has issued a seven day ultimatum to the management of the shipping company and terminal operator.
Comrade Adewale Adeyanju, President General of MWUN made this known on Tuesday during a meeting with the dockworkers in Lagos, urging members not to be used against themselves over the rumour of acquisition of the shipping company and terminal operator.
Comrade Adeyanju called on the conglomerates to come out clean and explain the true pictures of the alleged acquisition plans of the two companies in furtherance for members in shipping and dockworkers branches to understand the next line of actions.
The union boss also further threatened that at the expiration of the seven days ultimatum, it will be forced to withdraw services from port operations.
He maintained that the leadership of the union is ready to fight and get to the bottom on the issues of acquisition plans from yet unknown company.
However, Adeyanju allayed fears of members from the shipping and dockworkers branches of the union noting that the MWUN will continue to engage the operators to know the organisation involved in the acquisition.
The Union boss reiterated that the union might be forced to down tools after the seven days notices, pointing out that despite the earlier letter on the sensitive issues , management of the two organizations refused d to respond.
The statement written to the companies with headline: RE: IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FROM CYRILLE BOLLORE, DEMAND TO KNOW THE FATE OF OUR MEMBERS was first written on the 14 of September 2022 without response from the companies involved.
As written in a statement made available and duly signed by Oniha Erazua, on behalf of the Secretary General of MWUN, dated 14th November 2022, states that ” On the strength of the above and given the increasing restiveness of our members in the employ, I am directed to give you notice of a seven day ultimatum starting from the date of this letter within which your management is expected to furnish us with the information requested.
“Please note that the union would take all necessary redemptive means to protect the interest of our members, including withdrawing our services at the expiration of this ultimatum.”, the letters written to both Bollore and TICT explained.