Union to block oil exports as strike enters fourth day

Nigeria's junior oil workers union said on Thursday it was withdrawing members from the country's oilfields and crude oil export terminals to cripple vital oil exports as a general strike to protest government increase of fuel prices entered the fourth day. Peter Akpatason, president of the National Union of Petroluem and Natural Gas Workers of Nigeria (NUPENG), said the withdrawal began gradually on Wednesday, allowing export schedules to continue and give President Olusegun Obasanjo's government time to compromise with the unions. "But the exports will be shut down completely by Friday if nothing happens and we take more men out of the terminals," he told IRIN. The white-collar Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria on Tuesday gave the government until Sunday to revert to the oil prices or face a shut down of the oil industry in Nigeria, Africa's leading oil producer. Government and union negotiators held their third day of talks until late on Wednesday without reaching agreement. Adams Oshiomhole, president of the Nigeria Labour Congress, the umbrella trade union body, told reporters afterwards "there was still a wide gap" in positions between the negotiators. Talks were scheduled to resume later on Thursday. Soldiers joined anti-riot police on patrols of the capital Abuja after President Obasanjo ordered the security forces to protect people willing to go contrary to unions' directive for a total shut down of all business and social activities. Although a few shops opened and some transport operators returned to the streets, banks, schools, government offices and major businesses remained shut for the fourth straight day. Head of police Tafa Balogun, accused union members of unacceptable violent behaviour, including taking over the control towers at airports in the main city of Lagos and the southeastern city of Enugu on Monday in a bid to ground airlines. Reports from the southeastern city of Port Harcourt said at least three people were shot dead by riot police on Wednesday when they opened fire to disperse more than 2,000 protesters led by university students. In Abuja police fired teargas and shot in the air to disperse a rally by trade unionists at a major market, leaving several people injured in the ensuing stampede. The unions called the strike protest after the government raised petrol prices by 54 percent on 20 June, saying Nigeria should no longer have to spend US $2 billion a year on subsidising fuel that was already extremely cheap by international standards. However, labour leaders insist the price increases of more than 50 percent for petrol, diesel and kerosene would only aggravate poverty among Nigeria's 120 million people, 70 percent of whom live on less than one dollar a day.