The re-elected National President of the Merchant Navy Officers and Water Transport Senior Staff Association, Engr. Matthew Alalade has said that he would focus on unionizing the many affiliates of the association in his second term as the President of the association.
Alalade who made this known in a chat with newsmen in Lagos Tuesday also said that getting the Federal Government to acquire vessels for most of the Nigerian seafarers who had no place to work and gain employment would rank second in his agenda for the association.
He observed that unionization had become necessary as a lot of companies using the services of their members have not unionized irrespective of the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) 2006 that had been in place.
He stated that the association under his watch needed to check from where the loopholes were coming with a view to determining whether it was coming from the government or from the association itself.
“There are lots of seafarers, lots of officers; they just go on for a job without signing any article. The MLC 2006 is a tripartite thing among the government, the labour, that is the union and the owners. They always say that the owners called them and say go and work for me, after we will settle it out and they too in return, they are not careful by not signing any contract, they just go on the work immediately. So, the owner capitalize on it and I want to let them know that it is better you secure your job first, letting the union or the government to know. It is a tripartite thing.
“Again, I want to strive that the Federal government should acquire vessels for most of our seafarers for them to gain employment. It is very crucial. After the demise of the NNSL, we feel the federal government should do something in this area so that they can have more trainings, even, it will help Nigeria as the hub of the maritime sector in the West African sub-region”, he said.
On allegation that the association was not doing enough to protect members’ interests in the sector, he said,” Any of them that says so must be one of those who jumped into employment without finalizing their membership with the union. Those who we are representing on ground, we have Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), we review their agreement every two years, the company increases their salaries by either 1% or so. But these people, they just come, they don’t want to pay dues to the union”.
Speaking further on the allegation that the Merchant Navy leadership was instrumental to the inclusion of the trawler owners in the cabotage, Alalade denied any knowledge of the alleged action saying that the action was not undertaken under his leadership even as he said that his administration never had any agreement in that regard.
“I know that most of their vessels are about 500 gross tonnage, they are not conventional vessels. So, they are free. I don’t know who registered them with the cabotage, they should mention the name of the officers that registered them with the cabotage, it is not in my tenure. I don’t know about it to be candid”, he stated.
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