The Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), has suspended its nationwide strike, after reaching an agreement with the management of Dangote Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited on workers’ unionisation.
NUPENG had on Monday declared a nationwide industrial action to protest refusal of the Dangote Group to allow its workers to join the union.
This comes after a two-day high-level conciliation meeting convened by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Muhammad Dingyadi, in Abuja, with the intervention of the Department of State Services (DSS).
In attendance at yesterday’s meeting were the ministers of labour and finance, representatives of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, NMDPRA, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC), and Dangote’s management team led by Mr. Sayyu Dantata, Group Managing Director.
In the signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), Dangote management agreed that unionisation was a fundamental right of its employees and pledged to implement it without interference.
“The management is not averse to unionisation. We will abide by the provisions of the law and ensure employees who wish to join unions are free to do so without interference,” Mr. Sayyu Dantata, said, after signing the agreement.
The MoU also stipulated that “unionisation of employees must be completed between September 9 and 22, 2025, no employer-sponsored or alternative unions will be created, no worker will be victimised for participating in the strike or supporting unionisation and both parties will report back to the minister of labour a week after the process concludes.”
The President of NUPENG, Williams Akporeha, said all contentious issues were resolved, saying “we signed agreement and members have agreed to unionisation of workers in Dangote Petrochemical refinery.”
He said the strike was to be called off immediately, adding that tankers had started loading petroleum products.
On why the issues were not resolved on Monday night meeting, Akporeha said, “They tried to bring in some clauses. They didn’t agree on our own input while we did not also agree on their input but today (yesterday), we have been able to harmonise that and we have signed.”
