Shell's Nigerian workers hold firm
2003/09/10 Informal talks between the Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell and striking Nigerian workers appeared deadlocked, two weeks into the latest labour dispute to disrupt Africa's largest oil industry. Shell's external relations manager Don Boham told AFP that talks on the firm's controversial global restructuring plan had begun. "We expect all the concerns and fears of workers to be tabled and ironed out," he said. But he insisted that no formal discussion of labour's fears of impending job losses would take place while the strike continues.
* * * *
"We can still talk and resolve these issues even when the strike is still on. We will not call off the strike until all or some of our demands are met," said Leonard Nwogu of the PENGASSAN oil union's Shell branch. Mr Nwogu said the union wants Shell to abandon the restructuring plan, to halt a rise in the number of expatriates brought in to work in Nigeria and to return to Nigeria a computer system recently moved to The Hague. White-collar Shell workers have been on strike since August 27. Management activities at the company's three main offices in the cities of Lagos, Warri and Port Harcourt have been disrupted by the action, but so far crude oil production and export have reportedly been unaffected.
* * * *
Shell is Nigeria's major oil producer, accounting for 870,000 barrels, almost half of the west African country's daily output. World oil prices were stable in early London trading, but trader Kevin Blemkin said: "People still have their eyes on the Nigerian affair." The white-collar strike is one of a series of crises to rock Nigeria's oil industry and worry the markets this year, as ethnic warfare and a rash of pirate attacks and kidnappings rattled the oil-rich Niger Delta. Shell's Warri offices had only a skeleton staff on Tuesday due to the strike, witnesses said.
http://www.afr.com/articles/2003/09/10/1062902080207.html