The National Association of Plant Operators (NAPO) has thumbed down claims by the President of the National Union of Civil Engineering, Construction, Furniture and Wood Workers (NUCECFWW), Stephen Okoro that it workers under the aegis of NUCECFWW that worked to ensure the achievement of the 52 million manhours on the Train 7 project of the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (NLNG)

In an exclusive interview with Kristina Reports Correspondent, Confidence Buradum, on Wednesday, December 11, 2024, National President of NAPO, Harold Benstowe accused the NUCECFWW President of sneaking in and out of Bonny Island without interfacing with the same workers he claimed were his members for fear of rejection by them. He asserted that over 7,000 workers at the Train 7 site are members of NAPO and not NUCECFWW, as claimed by Okoro.

Benstowe, who described Okoro’s assertion that workers “must” belong to NUCECFWW as “preemptive and prejudicial,” given that the matter is currently before the National Industrial Court, also addressed concerns over workers’ welfare, alleging wage disparities between Nigerian and foreign workers on the project, urging the relevant authorities to address these grievances after the court’s verdict.

Read his full response here.

Kristina Reports: You are here to react to our publication, on the visit of the President of NUCECFWW, Stephen Okoro, as he noted that, the workers on the Train 7 Project must be part of NUCECFWW and are members of NUCECFWW, where does NAPO stand on the project? Who are the members of NAPO?

Harold Benstowe: In the first place, the members of NAPO numbering over 7,000 workers in the Nigeria NLNG Train 7 project site have stated clearly that they’re not members of NUCECFWW. They wrote a letter to that effect that they are members of the National Association of Plants Operators.

There are some issues that he raised that has to do with the law, which he claimed that the law said that you must be under NUCECFWW, according to the law. We don’t know the law he is citing. But then without prejudice, we will leave that for the court to answer. We will not join issues with him because these are issues already before the National Industrial Court to give an interpretation of the position of the law, to determine if those workers are members of NAPO or members of NUCECFWW. The law will do justice to that.

So, for him to be speaking like the judge, we consider his statement as preemptive and prejudicing an already existing case. You cannot just come and start talking publicly that the law – we don’t know the law he is citing – and he said, “they must”. He is not the judge and besides there is freedom of association. So, the workers have the right to choose the union they want to belong to, and for his visit, well from source information, our members said that there was never such visit on Thursday because for him to come to that site as a president of a union it should he should be visible. But some of our members said they never saw such kind of person. It’s only in the print that we are now seeing that Stephen Okoro visited NLNG Train 7 site on Thursday. So, it’s only on the print we are seeing that.

Are there other things you wish to react to?

Yes, I want to respond to what I think is an image laundering that the workers are now earning 35% increase after the so-called negotiation. Well, that’s also before the court. We are challenging all the agreements and we will see who have entered with the employers in that project, because our members are saying that they are not representing them. That’s also subject to the court. But then my members are not happy in NLNG Train 7 project. They are not happy because this is a $10 billion project as published earlier in 2021 by NLNG, though they’ve been coming up with different figures. It’s not our concern, but time will come when they will tell us what is the real contract agreement in that project.

You can’t be paying our members less than $200 and you pay foreign workers from $2,000 to $3,000 in the same project and this same project was negotiated in dollars. The Federal Government has paid this money for crying out loud. If they had paid Daewoo; and Daewoo claimed that they will pay Nigerian workers $5,000 in a month, or $3,000 in a month, we are saying why are they now paying them $200 in a month? So, these are issues that have made these workers to come out and say you must talk to us. We don’t know NUCECFWW, our union is NAPO.

So, there’s a challenge being faced, workers are crying every day. Look at the condition in Nigeria, the dollar rate as at 2021, that they were paying them N150,000 is not as the same today, that N150,000 value as of 2021 is now less than N70,000. That’s the challenges that the workers are facing, and there are issues. We are going to meet Daewoo and NLNG after the court has taken decision.