President of the Dock Workers Union Abdul Kanasieu has disassociated himself with casual workers that staged a one day sit down strike at the Ports facilities on Tuesday morning this week describing their action as sabotage.
He made this disclosure yesterday during an exclusive interview he stated that there are rules and regulation governing all workers at the port and if there has been any grievance they could have channeled it to appropriate authorities.
“I was shocked when I heard about the strike action because my office was not notified and I was reliably informed that even the Maritime and Water fall Union was not informed, it is sad to see people taking the law into their own hands because of their political affiliation to the APC task forces” he revealed.
He also stated that the workers Union are in good relationship with Ports management and if there has been any complaint they will give 21 day strike notice before taking any other legal action we have system and processes at the ports he averred.
President Kanasieu intimated that workers are adequately informed about the Government initiative to privatize the entity and ports management has been cooperating with the privatization process.
The National Commission for Privatization and the World Bank he said has been working closely with the Ports Management and the Dock Workers Union so the strike was a surprise to both management and the Dock Workers Union.
It was also revealed that saboteur’s and enemies of progress on the guise of APC Task Force are behind the strike action as our investigative reporter finds out that normal business at the ports resumed since yesterday.
The Sierra Leone Ports Authority Management has come under sharp criticism by workers of the entity for what they referred to as rampant corruption at the hierarchy depriving optional and regular casual workers their dues.
A cross section of the aggrieved workers on Tuesday morning staged a sit down strike at the ports facilities, however the Deputy Ministers of Transport and Labour were shift to intervene and the strike was called off.
According to investigations conducted by this Press it was revealed that the aggrieved workers were demanding the Board of Directors an investigation on an alleged syndicate of recycling of petty cash at the accounts department.
The aggrieved workers also alleged that the privatization process is not in their interest as there is every likely hood that they would loose their jobs after the process could have been implemented by ports management.
The Deputy Minister resolved to investigate the matter and all parties agreed on a date for a meeting to be held on the 30th of this month so as to resolve the growing tension between Management and casual workers.
By Saidu Bah
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