A section of Dock Workers Union has accused their Secretary General, Simon Sang of being an impediment to the achievement of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) for its 5,000 members working at KPA.
Led by Dockers’ Chair, Mohammed Sheria, the workers accused Sang of taking them to court to stop the CBA negotiations with Kenya Ports Authority which has been pending since 2017.
Sheria said it was unfortunate that Sang, who is not an employee of Kenya Ports Authority, has been opposing every move in the CBA negotiations.
Sang was kicked out of the Secretary General position by the Sheria-led team during the DWU Annual General Meeting (AGM) in September 26, 2019, but he moved to court to challenge the decision.
“As we speak, Sang is not the Secretary General of DWU. He is in office by the virtue of court orders. Therefore, we will have to wait until that case is heard and determined,” said Sheria.
Speaking in Mombasa on Monday, Sheria said Sang moved to court on January 2 this year to sue the Union and KPA to stop them from negotiating the CBA.
“The negotiations were supposed to start in November last year, but because of some issues, we pushed the negotiations to January 20, 2020. However, the SG has since moved to court to stop this,” said Sheria.
Sheria said in his latest suit, Sang also wants the DWU Chairperson, the Deputy Secretary General and Treasurer to also be kicked out of office.
Sang accuses the trio of challenging his leadership and orchestrated his removal from office last year.
“The SG has stopped any CBA proceedings until the case is heard and determined. He has also sued three of us for colluding with KPA management in the CBA processes,” said Sheria.
The DWU Deputy Secretary General, Anthony Odero said Sang’s behavior portray him as a selfish person.
“We have been in the corridors of court for the past three years. CBA negotiation was one of the priorities that the union must undertake, but SG’s behavior is very worrying,” said Odero.
He said the CBA has a time frame, which if elapses, they risk losing all the achievement gained.
“We might lose everything because this CBA has time limits. We might never be able to register this CBA if we continue with these games,” said Odero.
Sang could not be reached for a comment as calls made to him went unanswered.
By Joseph Kamolo
