assessing the impact of strike action in the achievement of trade union arms in Kaduna Polytechnic.

CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background Of The Study Strike action also called labour strike or industrial action is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employee(s) to work. A strike usually takes place in respond to employee grievances. Strike became important during the Industrial Revolution, when mass labour became important in factories and mines. In most countries, they were quietly made illegal, as factory owners had far more political power than workers. Most western countries partially legalize striking in the late 19th or early 20th centuries. Strikes are sometimes used to put pressure on government to change polices. Occasionally, strike destabilizes the rule of a particular political party or ruler. In such cases, strikes are often part of a broader social movement taking the form of a campaign of civil resistance. A notable example is the stoppage of work by the indigenous railways workers in (1932) led by Pa Michael Imodu during the colonial era and the first general strike of (1945) in Nigeria. Since 1970 to present time, workers demand for improved condition of work and wages have increased the number of strike actions as management most times would not accurately satisfy the needs and requests of employees even in the face of economic recession. In this study, however, we are going to examine the causes of strike, i.e. consequences and impact in the achievement of trade union objectives. Strikes are the most significant aspect of industrial conflict. Strike is defined as the temporary stoppage of work in the pursuance of grievance or demand. In practice however, it has been difficult to separate strike from other forms of expression of industrial dispute as employer lock out workers and workers themselves embark on strike action. It is more useful to view both phenomena as part and parcel of the conflict situation, not as opposite. Rarely does a strike occur over a single issue for an obvious cause may be linked with several other issues that not immediately apparent to the observation that have caused dissatisfaction because solutions to them have been long in coming. The actual occurrence of strike depends on several factors including prevailing circumstances. This also goes to show that few strikes occur spontaneously especially as there is no way of guaranteeing that strike actions instead of the other forms of industrial action would be decided upon by workers involved. Each time strike occurs substantial man-hour is lost, a good example is the first general strike of (1945), the (1993) ASU strike where universities in the country was closed for couple of months thereby causing set back in the tertiary institution. The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and Trade Union Congress, TUC, the two major umbrella bodies of workers union in Nigeria mobilized workers for an indefinite strike action which commenced on Monday, 9th January, 2012 to drive home the protest against the fuel subsidy removal of January 1st 2012. The government of Nigeria removed fuel subsidy by increasing the price of petrol per litre from N65 to N141 on January 1st 2012. This nationwide strike affected the country’s economy negatively where the volume of trading on the floor of the Nigeria Stock Exchange,( NSE) fell by 82 percent, local flights were grounded, and lifting of crude oil was hampered. The strike had a lot of effect on the major sector of the economy as activities of the (NSE) that are trading slumped by 80%, while banks complied with the strike order and closed shop, the NSE opened for business as usual. But at close of trading, only 46.06 million shares were traded in 20 deals. This is a significant reduction when compared with an average 262 million shares worth about N1.05 billion traded in 2,509 deals the previous week. The Nigeria Labour Congress, (NLC) has led a number of general strikes in the past to mention a few. In 2004, the Nigeria Labour Congress gave the Federal government an ultimatum to reverse the decision to introduce the controversial fuel tax or force a nationwide protest strike. The strike threat was made despite the fact that the Federal High Court judgment in an earlier dispute had declared the organization lacking legal power to call a general strike over government policies. It is in this context that the research wishes to access the impact of strike action on the achievement of trade union objectives in both private and public sectors in Nigeria and how management policies/decisions are influenced by workers through the representatives (trade union) to the effect of harmonizing management polices with trade union objectives enhancing efficiency as well as maintain good industrial relation peace and harmony in the work place using Kaduna Polytechnic Trade Union arm as our case study. 1.2 Statement Of The Problem The demand of trade unions and other industrial unions in the Nigerian higher institutions is that government should fulfill an agreement it reached with them in 2009 on how to save the nation's higher institutions from collapse. On the other hand, government is proposing a piecemeal selective approach. There is no doubt that education is too vital to the survival of any nation that it should be treated as a subject beyond politics or evasive polemics. It is not deniable that Nigeria is presently not doing enough, by world standards, in the funding of her children's education. As far as the government is concerned, there are other competing items for the limited funds available and government is not doing enough in the infrastructural development of the Nigerian higher institutions. This has caused serious altercations between government and these industrial unions including trade union arms in Kaduna Polytechnic resulting into persistent industrial actions. The incessant industrial action by the trade union arms in Kaduna Polytechnic and all these industrial unions has inadvertently affected the academics of polytechnic students; it usually poses a lot of challenges to their study duration, performance in examinations and their final grading. The students are kept away from school for a long time; most of them are completely cut off from academics as conditions at home may not favor productive and rigorous academic exercise. The students and their parents become frustrated because of long expectation of school resumption that is far from sight. Some of the students while at home doing nothing get engaged in other things other than academics. In some cases they are easy recruits for criminal activities, such as armed robbery, kidnapping, and rape and on the other hand encourage cultism. This has made them a problem to the society peace and order in Nigeria, However the extent to which staffs of the Kaduna Polytechnic including Trade Union strikes affects student's academic performance require a close examination and this research is geared towards assessing the impact of strike action in the achievement of trade union arms in Kaduna Polytechnic. 1.3 Objectives of the Study The objective of this study is to probe into the effectiveness of strike action as a means of achieving trade union objectives from the management with Trade Union Arms in Kaduna Polytechnic as the case study. The following objectives will be study: 1. The existence of trade union lead to increase strike action 2. Collective bargaining lead to human resource practices which help in the achievement of trade union objective 3. Trade unions influence the making and implementation of management polices 4. The trade union activities affected the organization objective negatively 5. The Trade Union undertake peaceful dialogue as a means of setting trade dispute between management and the employee 6. The Trade Union management relation of the organization? 7. The management responds to the trade union positively? 1.4 Scope of The Study The research work focuses particularly on the impact of strike on the achievement of trade union in Kaduna Polytechnic. The research is conducted to cover and improve the management of organization focusing on the trade union arms of Kaduna Polytechnic. For this reason therefore, the researcher has consulted several reviews, on issues of strike and trade union to include text books industrial relation, management, social sciences, dissertations from academicians on related issues, Newspaper edits journal etc. the work would be very large if all the argument of the different authors are presented, but they have been carefully selected so that only issues particularly concentrating on the impact of strikes on the achievement of trade objectives are considered. 1.5 Significance Of The Study This research work will be relevant to management and employee It will be beneficial to other public sectors in Nigeria; it will also be of importance to government, academicians, potential and future researchers on the issue of the impact of strike action on the achievement of trade union objectives in an organization. This empirical study is also important for the reward of Bachelor of Science (B.SC) in industrial relation and personnel management. The study will also identify how management and union can co-operate to enhance the achievement of trade union objectives in an organization. It will provide a basis for trade union re-orientation objectives are achieved for better and harmonious industrial relationship. It will also provide a frame work for management and union to relate for increase productivity and good condition of service. 1.6 RESEACH QUESTIONS 1. Does the existence of trade union lead to increase strike action? 2. Does collective bargaining lead to human resource practices which help in the achievement of union objective? 3. Do trade unions influence the making and implementation of management polices? 4. Has the trade union activities affected the organization objective negatively? 5. Is the union management effective? 6. Does union undertake peaceful dialogue as a means of setting trade dispute between management and the employee? 7. How good is the union management relation of the organization? 8. Does the management respond to the union positively? 1.9 DEFINITION OF TERMS STRIKE: Strike is defined as a temporary stoppage of work in the pursuance of a grievance or demand. TRADE UNION: Is a combination of workers who are wages or salary earners form for the purpose of regulating work terms and condition for maintenance and improving the employment condition of their members. WORKING CONDITION: A comfortable environment (condition of floor and workroom, dressing rooms and cafeteria, temperature and humidity, cleanliness, comfort and safety (of floors, tools and so fort) and efficiency (steady product flow, adequate wage and salary, performance approval, incentive, motivation and welfare services. GRIEVANCE: situation of dissatisfaction on the part of the worker of the organization. EMPLOYEE: Refers to worker(s), person(s) responsible for carrying out day to day activities of the organization toward achieving the target goals. EMPLOYER: Refers to the management board, one who engages human and material resources for the production of goods and services. MANAGEMENT: Refers in this study to be the body employer and its representatives, foremen and supervisors inclusive. DISPUTE: Is any argument or disagreement between employer and workers, or between workers and workers which is concerned with the employment and non employment conditions of work of any person. WORK: This implies any kind of purposive action i.e. whether paid or unpaid, full time or part time, formal or informal with reference to an organization; it used to imply the operation involved in a particular job or work. ORGANIZATION: A group of people brought together for the purpose of achieving certain objectives, while these members may change the role of organization which is its basic unit is maintained. LABOUR RELATION/INDUSTRIAL RELATION It refers to the totality of interaction between an organization‟s management and the organized labour/trade union. Its purpose is to serve the interest of both the state and the working classes. It is often called collective bargaining. It is not only for industrial or manufacturing context, but extends also to issues and procedure concerning employment in any working environment. COLLECTIVE BARGAINING: is a process of discussion and negotiation between two parties one or both of whom is a group of persons acting in consent. LOCKOUTS: refers to the action of an employer in temporarily closing down or shutting down the undertaking or refusing to provide its employees with work with intention of forcing them to either to accept the demand made by them or to withdraw the demand made by them on him. LABOUR FORCE: they refer to the collection of people who are available to perform work in an economy or organization. POLICY: A set rules or principle to guide the activities of the members of an organization towards the achievement of a given objective or purpose within a specific time. HARMONY: Used in this study to mean peace among the workers and management. SYSTEM: This means chain or line of operational activities. COLLECTIVE AGREEMENT: This is a contract of employment negotiated between management and a union. MACHINERY: As a function unit, it means a system by which something is kept in action through which a desired result is obtained.