THE NIGERIA LABOUR CONGRESS AND NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT (1993 – 2000)

The paper was written to reveal the complex multiplicity of challenges confronted with the Nigeria Labour Congress in the fulfilment of its mandate as workers and popular organization. It also showed the dynamics of the emergent international political economy that has a profound effect on the Nigerian context. The effective condition that has given impetus to the ascendancy of the anti-worker and anti-union managerial ethics that create grace to the bottom of Labour standard was observed. The paper examined the collective bargaining as the most Rational process of determining and reviewing the terms and conditions of employment and how the process manifests the power relationship between the employers and the trade unions. The Congress believes that the people must remain both the means and the ends of economic developments. In this context, the national development priority focuses on the protection and creation of employment. This paper concludes that the possibility of labour to achieve its various objectives, guarantee unity and organizational vibrancy depend on how it becomes a force in the socio-economic development of Nigeria, which requires good governance based on internal democracy. Nigerian Labour Congress as the leading organization of the working population, cannot afford to be alienated from this process. It was recommended among others that Nigerian Labour Congress should use international solidarity to protect the rights and gains of the Nigerian workforce, to strengthen trade organization in the sub-region, continentally and in the wider international level