The President General of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria, MWUN, Comrade Adewale Adeyanju has said that his greatest achievement as a labour leader in the Nigerian Maritime industry is industrial harmony the sector enjoyed.
Adeyanju also said that the industry thrived under his leadership because progress can only be made in a peaceful environment.
The outgoing labour leader explained that the shipping sector for the first time in its history and after decades of struggle, has a Minimum Standard for Conditions of Service established through the National Joint Industrial Council (NJIC).
“We were able to achieve a benchmark figure of N200,000.00 as minimum wage for shipping workers.” He stated.
He further explained that the Dockworkers Minimum Standard for Conditions of Service has been regularly upgraded through the NJIC, and the pay package of the dockworkers is now at a level never seen before in the Dock Labour industry.
He said: ” As President General of this great union, I am elated to be able to stand today in solidarity with my co-executives.
The powerful executives of this administration who have been a wonderful team and support system. Together, we have struggled and achieved numerous things, and whilst time may not have allowed us to achieve all that we set out to do, but they are the ones with whom I have been able to achieve the many milestones and growth indices I am about to highlight.
“As for the Nigerian Ports Authority workers whose emoluments had remained stagnated for up to eighteen years before our administration came on board, we were able to break the jinx and now their remuneration is at its highest in over two decades.
“The development witnessed during our administration at the National level is also observable. We have been able to transform the national secretariat inside out, giving it a face lift and general renovation, and we did not stop there, we also revamped our internal operations to meet global digital standards.
“Similarly, we recently had the MD NPA on the premises to commission and declare open our annex building which we built to accommodate more officers in line with the operational needs of our expanding union.
“To cater to the increased demand for efficiency of our secretariat workforce in line with our expanding union membership, our administration has regularly organized training programs for our secretariat workers.
“Aged Seafarers: the unpaid disengagement benefits due to the Aged Seafarers has reached the final stages of approval and will be paid to all the affected Seafarers of the defunct Nigerian National Shipping Line, NNSL.
“Under our tenure, we have been able to achieve global positioning of the union through our alignment with the International Transport Workers Federation. I was elected the Global Vice President of the ITF and the Chairman – African Region of the ITF.
“One of our landmark achievements is the peace and stability of the maritime sector enjoyed throughout our two tenures. We employed dialogue to resolve issues, and changed the face of our advocacy. The era of being labelled thugs or “agbero” is now in the past.
“In the area of infrastructure, we have been able to achieve funding and complete preparation to execute a unique and first-of-its-kind project: the Multipurpose and Multicultural Seafarers Centre.
“We also collaborated with key allies and affiliate unions for the betterment of the maritime and logistics sectors. For example, we collaborated with NARTO, with AMATO, in respect of maritime/haulage operations management. And more recently, we signed an MoU with the Joint National Transport Safety Committee of Nigeria (JNTSCN) to collaborate on upgrading road haulage operational safety nationwide.
“Under our watch, the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria and the maritime sector have witnessed unprecedented development and we are honoured to have been of service to my union and the nation.”
