STRIKE AS A LABOUR UNION TOOL IN NIGERIA: REFLECTIONS ON TRADE UNION ACT, 2005

The Year 2005 brought with it the Trade Union (Amendment) Act which introduces some further elements of democracy in Unionism, as well as additional prohibition on the already prohibited work stoppages in Nigeria. It aims at regulating the relationships between labour and government as partners in development. This paper intends to explore the effects of the law on Nigeria’s trade unions and workers, as a whole. It is well known that trade unionism all over the world emerged for improving the economic, living and working conditions of workers. Therefore, industrialization and the ever increasing huge corporations require organized labour to deal with it for effective collective bargaining. Workers through their union representatives seek to obtain an equitable share in the profits made by the employer in order to improve their working and living standards out of the wealth they help to generate.