MWUN Threatens Strike Over Unionisation of Port Workers At Flour Mills Nigeria

By DAPO OLAWUNI

The Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) has threatened to withdraw its services from key maritime formations across the country over the refusal of Flour Mills Nigeria Plc to allow its Workers to be unionised under the union.

The union claims that the company for more than twenty two years has suppressed workers’ rights.

Speaking with DAILY TREND on Tuesday, the President General of MWUN, Comrade Francis Bunu Abi said that Flour Mills have operated in the ports for over twenty years without allowing its port Workers to be protected under the union.
Bunu raised concerns that the food unions are now coming into the port to unionise the workers. Our correspondent reports that the two main food unions in Nigeria are; National Union of Food, Beverage and Tobacco Employees (NUFBTE) and the Food, Beverage and Tobacco Senior Staff Association (FOBTOB), which represent different levels of workers in the food and beverage industry.

“The union would embark on withdrawal of services if all the flour Mills staff in the port environment are not allowed to come under the union. It is a slap on our face for the food union to come into port to come and unionise our workers

“We are not talking about the Flour Mills staff operating outside the port, but we have allowed them to work in the port for over twenty two years. We stopped them in Warri back then, they know what they are doing.
We are going to the Ministry of Labour tomorrow over this matter”

Our correspondent reports that there are two Flour Mills factories at the Lagos Ports of Apapa and Tin Can Island Port.