…Commends collaboration among five accredited freight forwarding associations
The acting President of National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents, Chief Ifeanyi C. Anakweze (Ezenwa) has commended the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) Tincan Island Container Terminal (TICT) branch for calling off the strike they embarked upon few days ago.
Speaking in statement in Lagos on Sunday, Anakweze observed that by harkening to the cries of the clearing agents who were the major losers in terms of demurrages they incur from shipping companies and terminal operators should the strike continues and agreed to call off the strike, the labour union had shown that they are reliable partners in the supply chain industry.
Chief Anakweze, however, called on the TICT management to take proactive steps to address the issues that led to the strike in the first place in order to avoid reoccurrence.
He urged the TICT management to treat the welfare of her staff as priority because they were the geese that laid the golden egg.
“Without these workers, business at TICT would be grounded and both TICT management, clearing agents, Nigeria Customs Service, government agencies and other stakeholders involved in doing business at TICT would be seriously affected.
“The enormous losses experienced by all stakeholders in the last few days of the strike have shown that the labour union should on no account be taken for granted or be treated with levity by TICT management or any other terminal operator elsewhere” he said.
He lamented that clearing agents were always at the receiving end of any disagreement between terminal operators and labour union in the port industry.
According to him, clearing agents always lose millions of naira during these strikes by paying huge demurrages in the event that they were not the cause.
He called on the staff of TICT to feel free to reach out to the leadership of NCMDLCA anytime they have issues that affects them assuring them that NCMDLCA was ever ready to forge a proactive synergy with the labour union to find lasting solutions to challenges they face in the cause of doing their job.
He counselled the workers to shun the act of taking laws into their hands no matter the provocations, but to exhaust every avenue of dialogue and peaceful resolution.
On the issue of the present collaboration between the five accredited freight forwarding associations, he commended it as a move that was long overdue and a good omen that would stem the negative tide of speaking with discordant tunes among freight forwarding associations.
According to him, better days were ahead, if freight forwarders under different associations could speak with one voice and forge a united synergy on all issues affecting their operations in the industry.
Photo: Chief Ifeanyi C. Anakweze, Acting President, National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA).
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