Cargoes trapped, port users stranded as workers commence strike
Cleared cargoes are currently trapped at the Apapa and Tin-Can Island Ports as the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN), enforced the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) strike directive.
At the Lagos ports, terminal operators at the Apapa and Tin Can ports have suspended their operations, shutting their facilities against the stranded freight forwarders.
In a notice to its customers, the APM terminal, Apapa, said its services would be suspended during the indefinite strike.
The APM terminal said services will resume at the terminal as soon as the strike, which it said started Monday, November 13th, is over.
Our reporter gathered that the situation is the same in all the terminals at the Lagos ports and other ports across the country.
It was reported that the agitating freight forwarders, who were seen milling around the ports, were lamenting the effects of the strike which would be accumulated demurrage.
They wanted to find out who would pay the accrued demurrage after the strike is called off, as according to them, they are not the cause of the strike.
This, they observed, may cause another unrest among the freight forwarders should the terminal operators insist they ( Customs Agents) pay the accrued demurrage when the strike is over.
It would be recalled that the leadership of the NLC and TUC served a notice of indefinite strike action to protest the brutalisation of the National President of the Nigerian Labour Congress, Comrade Joe Ajaero, who was allegedly manhandled by the Imo State police command.
The Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria ( MWUN) had last week also served notice to join the strike by grounding port operations.
The union had in a press statement on Monday warned that it would on midnight, Tuesday 14, 2023, commence a nationwide strike.
According to the media officer of the union, Comrade John Kennedy Ikemefuna, the strike is coming on the instructions of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) after its National Executive Council (NEC) meeting held, Monday, November 13, 2023, directing all affiliates of the Congress to strictly comply.
