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Nigeria Labor Unions
Labor unions have been a part of Nigerian industry
since
1912, when government employees formed a civil service
union. In
1914 this organization became the Nigerian Union of Civil
Servants after the merger of the protectorates of Northern
Nigeria and Southern Nigeria. In 1931 two other major
unions were
founded--the Nigerian Railway Workers Union and the
Nigerian
Union of Teachers (which included private-school
teachers).
Legalization of unions in 1938 was followed by rapid labor
organization during World War II as a result of passage by
the
British government of the Colonial Development and Welfare
Act of
1940, which encouraged the establishment of unions in the
colonies. The defense regulation of October 1942 made
strikes and
lockouts illegal for the duration of the war and denied
African
workers the cost-of-living allowances that European civil
servants received. In addition, the colonial government
increased
wages only modestly, although the cost of living rose 74
percent
from September 1939 to October 1943. In June and July of
1945,
43,000 workers, most of whom were performing services
indispensable to the country's economic and administrative
life,
went on a strike that lasted more than forty days. In
large part
as a result of the strike's success, the labor movement
grew
steadily and by 1950 there were 144 unions with more than
144,000
members.
Although the labor movement was federated in 1941, the
period
from the end of World War II to 1964 was characterized by
numerous splits, regroupings, and further fragmentation.
Factionalism was rampant, engendered by the reluctance of
the
Colonial Office to strengthen union rights, dependence on
foreign
financial support, the thwarting of labor's political
objectives
by nationalist leaders, and intramural ideological
differences.
The most visible manifestation of labor problems was the
dispute
over whether to affiliate with the East European
socialistoriented World Federation of Trade Unions, based in
Prague, or
the more capitalist-oriented International Confederation
of Free
Trade Unions, headquartered in Brussels.
In 1963 union members numbered 300,000, or 1.6 percent
of the
labor force. Despite this low level of organization, labor
discontent worsened as the gap widened between the wages
of
white-collar and those of blue-collar workers. In FY 1964,
supervisors were paid thirty-three times as much as
daily-wage
workers and semiskilled workers in public service. After
independence, many workers had begun to feel that the
political
leadership was making no effort to reduce the inequalities
of the
colonial wage and benefit structure. Corruption and
conspicuous
consumption were perceived to be widespread among
politicians. An
April 1963 pay raise for ministers and members of
parliament
further fueled labor resentment because rank-and-file
civil
servants had been doing without raises since 1960. The
five
superordinate central labor organizations consequently
formed the
Joint Action Committee (JAC) to pressure the government to
raise
wages. Numerous delays in the publication of a government
commission report on wages and salaries provided partial
impetus
for a JAC-mobilized general strike of 800,000 supporters,
most of
them nonunionists, which lasted twelve days in June 1964.
Although the strike demonstrated the government's
fragility, the
JAC could not translate its victory into permanent
political
strength; labor unity disintegrated in the face of
overtures by
political parties to segments of organized labor as the
federal
elections of December 1964 neared.
Political parties and communal associations were banned
during the military rule of the late 1960s, so labor
unions posed
a potential organized threat to the government. The
military
government's decree in 1969 forbidding strikes was
repeatedly
defied during the next four years, most notably in 1973,
when the
regime gave in to demands by striking postal and
telecommunications workers, about one-fifth of the federal
civil
service. Labor activities and internal strife among four
central
labor organizations continued up to 1975, when the
military
government attempted, unsuccessfully at first, to merge
the four
bodies into one unit, the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC).
The
government dissolved the four central unions, prohibited
union
affiliations with international labor organizations, and
in 1977
banned eleven labor leaders from further union activity.
Under
terms of a 1978 labor decree amendment, the more than
1,000
previously existing unions were reorganized into 70
registered
industrial unions under the NLC, now the sole central
labor
organization.
In the early 1980s, the civilian government found
itself
losing control of organized labor. Numerous wildcat
strikes
occurred in 1980-81, and in May 1981, the NLC mobilized
700,000
of 1 million unionized Nigerian workers for a two-day
strike,
despite the opposition of a government-supported faction.
Working days lost through strikes declined from 9.6
million
in 1982 to 200,000 in 1985 in the midst of a decline in
national
income that had begun in 1983. Industrial unrest resulted,
however, in demands by larger number of workers for
payments of
salary arrears and fringe benefits as real wages fell by
almost
60 percent. The causes of the decline in real wages were
the
World Bank-advised SAP and the unfavorable terms of trade
that
resulted from the collapse of the world oil market between
1986
and 1989.
Data as of June 1991
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