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Trade Unionism And It’s Impact On Workers Welfare In Nigeria
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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
The term
trade union has a variety of meanings depending on the perception of
workers and the definition imposed by the legal frameworks in many
countries.
Some workers organizations call themselves staff or
professional associations, or senior staff associations, but all these
are valid examples of trade unions. Furthermore, trade union laws in
the. UK and Nigeria defines a trade union as:
"Any combination
whether temporary or permanent, the principal objectives of which under
it's constitution are.......... the regulation of the relationship
between workmen or between masters and masters, or the imposing of
restrictive conditions on the conduct of any trade or business and also
the provision of benefits to members".
An alternative definition of
the term Trade Union is "...an association of wage/salary earners formed
with the objective of safeguarding and improving the wage and
employment conditions of it's members and to raise members social status
and standard of living in the community.
The above definition
emphasizes the sale and purchase of labour power as a factor of
production. The emphasis on the terms, conditions of service is perhaps
the factor that distinguishes trade union from social clubs and other
political organization.
For although all these social groups may show
interest in workers' welfare but only the trade union is accorded the
legal recognition to negotiate terms and conditions of work on behalf of
it's members.
However, the law governing the trade union formation
and organization is the Trade Union Acts 1973 and the Trade Union
Amendment Act (Decree 22) of 1978 and the Amendment Act of 1979. The
law., were further amended in 1990 and 1996. The Trade Unions Act Cap
437 LFN, 1990 which makes provisions with respect to the formation and
general organization of trade unions. In 1996 Trade Unions (amendment)
Decree 4 of 1996 restructured affiliates of the Nigerian Labour Congress
to 29 Decree 22 restructured Trade Unions primarily along industrial
line.
For it to be recognized as a trade union it has to be registered which entails to:
1. Get an application form from the registrar of Trade Union.
2.
Fill the form and return with the signature of at least 50 members for
workers and at least 2 members in the case of employers.
3. Every registration requires the approval of the Minister of Employment Labour and Productivity.
4. Issuance of certificate of registration under the present law, 3 types of unions are recognized.
(i) Those belonging to junior workers.
(ii) Those belonging to senior workers
(iii) Those belonging to employers.
Union
was formally organized in the public sector in 1912. It was the Civil
Service Union (CSU) formed possibly because it was the vogue of the
African Countries. In 1931, two other unions were formed: The Nigeria
Union of Teachers (NUT) and The Railway Workers Union (RWU). The RWU was
part of the CSU until it broke off because of dissatisfactical with the
tempo with which the CSU was pursuing industrial relations activities.
But the position of the CSU could be better understood if we consider
the cultural environment at the time. Workers looked upon the colonial
employer (largely government) as a kind of father figure. Such arbitrary
paternalism connotes that the employer was revered over much with a lot
of loyalty and this partly explain the slow tempo of industrial
activates by the union of government workers. Besides, by definition,
the civil service is supposed to be an institution of the state just
like the judiciary, police or army. Clearly, it may amount to
contradiction for the state to unionize against itself. This sort of
sovereignty-induced arguments could have been used to brainwash civil
servants and to discourage them from militant unionism. At any rate, the
RWU broke off from the CSU.
Similarly, the NUT want a better forum
where they could maintain good professionalism and forge a good standard
of education in Nigeria. The NUT was also dissatisfied with the wide
differential that existed in the wages of government teachers and their
mission school counterparts, formal organization of workers into unions
dated back to 1912. Yet no significant development in industrial
relations took place until the late t930's.
In 1938, the absence of
legal backing for Nigeria Labour Unions was removed when the colonial
administration passed the trade union ordinance into law and this
facilitated the formation of new ones.
Specifically, the law allowed
any group of five or more workers to form a trade union. Most of the
unions that emerged were centered around one employer or one enterprise
and comprised of few members indeed. The result was of course the growth
of large number of ineffective trade unions, which continued until the
1970's.
Other factor perhaps played equally important part in charting the nurse of development in Nigeria Trade Union movement.
These
factors are the 1939-45 world war, and the emerging nationalist
movement. The war brought serious hardship both to workers and the
general public in the form of acute shortages of essential commodities
with the corresponding, rise in prices and stagnant money wage (Otobo,
1987). So when rationing was introduced in Lagos, workers joined trade
unions in large number.
The central trade union the country is the
NLC (Nigeria Labour Con tress) Trade Unions to a large extent, has
played a significant role in transformation witnessed in the condition
of workers over time.
CHAPTER ONE -- [Total Page(s) 5]
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ABSRACT - [ Total Page(s): 1 ]This study is motivated by the unseemly variety of problems faced by an average Nigerian worker and the fundamental question as the level and quality of Trade Union organization their defined ideologies and the motives of these unions towards their members are examined.The objective of this study is to seek ways to correct these varieties of problems and to ensure that Trade Union has enough impact positively on workers. Two research questions were raised for the study while two research hypothe ... Continue reading---
