The National President of the Africa Association of Professional Freight Forwarders and Logistics of Nigeria, (APFFLON), Mr. Frank Ogunojemite has described the unionization of the Council workers under MWUN as an insult on the freight forwarding profession.
Recall that Maritime 2nd pan Workers’ Union of Nigeria (MWUN) threatens to shutdown all seaports, jetties, terminals and oil and gas platforms in Nigeria over nine months arrears of salaries owed the staff of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN).
Ogunojemite who made this submission in a telephone interview with Nigerian Tribune in Lagos, faulted the management of the Council for allowing the staff to unionise under the MWUN, describing it as leadership failure on the part of the Council’s management.
He contended that by unionising under the MWUN, the CRFFN had totally lost direction even as he submitted that the Council was becoming a disgrace to the freight forwarders rather than straightening the profession.
According to the APFFLON National President, “I see them unionising under the Maritime Workers’ Union as an insult to the freight forwarders and the founding fathers who defied all odds to establish the Council. I see it as an insult and in this case, the Council should be overhauled because though they are serving, they don’t know their purpose.
“What they should have done is to unite all the freight forwarders and then, we shall be their mouthpiece to speak up for them. Even the Council does not even respect the freight forwarders, neither do they have any plan for them.”
When reminded that it was only the staff and not the management that joined the MWUN, Ogunojemite said, “What is the difference between the management and the staff? Is it not the staff that graduate to become management? Or would they import management from some other places? This Uromta, is she not a staff of the Council before becoming the Acting Registrar? It is the workers that will progress to management level.
“So, does it mean that the management lacks control over the staff or is it that the staff disrespect the management? If we don’t have obtainable clarification, the Council will continue to run around without focus until it runs into extinction.
“For the management to have allowed the staff to join Maritime Workers’ Union is an insult to the freight forwarders and it’s an indication that they don’t have the capacity to be in FIATA. They shouldn’t have unionised under the Maritime Workers’ Union.
“The Council is weak, it needs total overhauling and if there’s need for downsizing in the Council, so be it because we just realised that the Council is overstaffed and most of the staff are not doing anything. Some of them have other jobs and they are making noise. The Council has been politicised, the staff joining the Maritime Workers’ Union, I look at it as an insult on the freight forwarders whom they are meant to regulate.”
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