The Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) has  issued a 7- day Ultimatum to the Federal Government on the unsettled issues affecting Chevron contract workers over alleged anti-labor practices, stating it will start a nation-wide strike action if the Federal Government refuse to intercede.

NUPENG in a statement signed by its president, Igwe Achese stated that there is a current termination of the jobs of its members, stressing that despite the intervention of the Federal Ministries of Labour and Petroleum Resources, Chevron and its labour contractors have not deemed it fit to honour the resolutions reached at all its meetings. NUPENG added that some of the unresolved issues include job categorization of its members who have worked as contract staff for over 25 years.

“But Chevron Nigeria Limited in their bid to deplete the numerical strength of NUPENG, introduced an obnoxious criteria of using remuneration to determine which union the contract workers should belong to in the company,” the union told Oilandgas people in a statement.

Other issues include the massive retirement of its members by the management of the various Chevron Labour Contractors without due process, NUPENG added noting that some of the workers transited from the former six Contractors to the new sixteen Contractors were not paid their full entitlements as documented by National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS) and were therefore short paid.

The union calls on the Federal Government, and its agencies, the Federal Ministry of Labour, NNPC to intervene or face a nationwide strike at the end of the 7- day ultimatum stating that it will not issue any fresh ultimatum over this matter.