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Comrade Francis Bunu Abi, President General of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria, speaks about the union’s commitment to workers’ welfare including aged seafarers that worked with the defunct Nigerian National Shipping Line (NNSL).
The union leader also urged government regulatory agencies to ensure standardisation in barge operation while advocating safety of workers in the ports and onboard ships
You recently had a tour of outstations, maritime workers units outside of Lagos. And since your assumption of office, it has been from one activity to the other. Can you give us an overview of the Union under your watch?
We had a tour, precisely for dockworkers. When we came into office, we had a lot of accident cases. What do we do? We needed to tell our people that there’s a new sheriff in town. So, if you don’t take care of yourself, your next of kin will be there. So, it’s better that we go and tell our people that accidents take life. We urged them to be safety conscious at home and at work.
It’s the concern of everybody. It’s like security; it’s not just for the government. Everyone has to be security conscious. It’s the same thing with safety. It’s not just for only your employers. Even you as an employee need to be safety conscious. That was why we took that tour, to tell all our people across the nation’s port, telling them that they should take their job more seriously and be more safety conscious in the line of duty.
For a union with plurality of opinions and sometimes divergence, what would you consider the most challenging aspect of leadership here?
The most challenging aspect of leadership here basically is misinformation. Secondly, the terrain. You need to be able to tell these people that some of these things have rules and regulations. You must educate them very well for them to understand that your job elsewhere is somebody’s gold mine. So, if you do it very well, you know that management will be happy to oblige if and when you ask for an improved pay package and better working conditions.
So basically, there is a lot of misinformation within the sector. And it is high time the people out there know that some of these things that they see in the social media, is not the way they see it. They should be able to have personal contact with some of the people on ground, to have interactions and verify issues, so that they can have a better understanding of events. Most of the time, things flying around are just misinformation.
Unions exist primarily for the welfare of workers. Can you tell us how you have touched workers’ welfare within this short time? And what are your long-term plans?
You know we have four sectors – dockworkers; seamen; NPA and the last one is shipping. These four sectors are very unique with their job titles, and distributions among themselves. For NPA, we are waiting for their Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) to be ready and for the Union to look into their issues one on one.
Whatever issue that happens in NPA, we have a very capable president who is in that sector. At his dial, he will pick his call to solve that problem. We don’t do things because we feel we want to do it. We want to do it with a human face. Let every sector in the system carry the responsibility they have been assigned as a result of their election into office. As a district chairman, you should be able to know how many workers are under you and what you can do to assist them. That is on NPA.
For dockworkers, any case that we meet, we solve it. We have met a few cases of accident victims that we needed to discuss about. We have discussed and to the glory of God, we are getting more response than ever before. Even the compensation has increased, and it’s no longer business as usual. Now, when it comes to remuneration, the dock workers have the National Joint Industrial Council (NJIC), which is the bigger umbrella when it comes to pay packages. But we still have plant to plant agreement. On the plant to plant, we will be going for another round of talks, and any company that we meet will improve the welfare of the workers immediately. In line with the law, we’ll make sure that the right thing is done for both the worker and also for the management.
Then when it comes to seafaring, so far so good, all the companies that we have met for the CBA since we came into office complied; the likes of Orion and Sea Transport. Go and ask them, from day one, they are the top in the industry right now.
So, for seafarers and dockworkers welfare, we can give ourselves a thumbs up. For the aged seafarer, we are pursuing it with the federal government and we know for sure that they are ready and very soon, the aged seafarers too will have their money. We are not resting until aged seafarers get paid their due.
When it comes to shipping, all the CBAs, as I came in, that they have handled, perfect, excellent. We don’t just do CBA because we want to do CBA. No, we carry CBA to the door post of the worker. You that work in that place will sit down with your management and I will be there to guide you because you are the one that knows where the shoe pinches. You work there; I don’t. I’m only a labour leader. My job is to protect and guide you.
And so far, all the CBA efforts we are handling now have been excellent. And in the end, workers agree to whatever management offers. It’s a tripartite thing; everybody sits down together and negotiates. But at the end of the day, the workers always go home happy.
You mentioned the aged seafarers. What’s the current status of the ex-NNSL workers on getting their money? And if they don’t get it, what actions will MWUN be taking to ensure that they do?
The government and the union have sat down. We have verified them. They have even given recommendations on how much they should be paid, and how they should be paid. The government has also sat down at their own end and have done their plus and minus. As we speak, the file has moved to the Ministry of Finance. Any moment from now, it will be at the honorable minister’s table. So, for us, it’s a win-win situation.
We trust and we believe the federal government is a listening government that will not allow these aged seafarers to suffer and then to die without getting their small stipends that they are entitled to. We are hopeful and pray that the government will speedily look into it and give them what they deserve.
What is MWUN doing about barges that are not seaworthy to ensure that the operators meet up with standards and not endanger the lives of their workers?
You have just stated that the barges are not seaworthy. Yes, it’s a general thing. It’s not just only for barges; we have the same issues with tugboats. No barge can move on the surface of the water without a tugboat pushing it, somebody must drag that barge somewhere. What about on the roads where you have bad tankers? It’s a general thing in all the sectors. It’s for the federal government to be able to take a holistic approach through the relevant agency to deal with these issues. It’s not an issue of trade unions. Trade unions can only talk , but the relevant regulatory agencies must be awake to their responsibilities.
For vessels, you see what NIMASA is doing in that regard, which is the way to go. Because the agency said, phase out all single hull vessels, people are going to buy new vessels to replace their old ones. And they are all complying because of the implication, knowing they cannot get new contracts with the old vessels. But when it comes to the lower aspects of the sector, that is where you see these compliance issues. So, it’s an issue that the agencies should look into and address.
There were rumours of crisis in the union. How are you managing it?
The Maritime Workers Union is peaceful; there is no crisis, and we will not even have any because we are more than that. We are too responsible for all those things. That is why we don’t want to dignify the publications that promote such falsehood with a reply through a press statement. We feel it does not propagate the positive interest of the Union and that it does not portray the spirit of maritime.
Just like President Bola Tinubu, said that he doesn’t read what is said on social media anymore because they insult him. The truth is, reading everything in the media can become a distraction. Because if you want to be focused, it’s not what everybody said that you would answer to. And for us, we are very, very focused.
