Globalization and the trade union movement in Nigeria

Abstract

By all accounts globalization has tended to have the greatest impact upon the working class and its organizations - the trade unions - in underdeveloped societies. However, while there are discussions of the macro impact of globalization upon Third World countries, its nature and consequences for these organizations in the context of the Third World have not been seriously discussed. The result is that, in the case of Nigeria at least, trade unions lack an adequate understanding of the nature, driving forces, strategies and impact of globalization, and how to manage its demands. This discussion represents an attempt to deal with these issues from thepoint of view ofthe trade union movement in Nigeria. The paper advances thenotion of globalization astheexpansion of all economic, political and cultural practice, which ill the modern period isthe practice of capitalism. It also examines the history of the expansion of this practice from the beginning of capitalism to the modern period. The strategies that wereappropriate toandtherefore deployed in expanding capitalist practice throughout its history are discussed. The consequences of these strategies and the responses needed todeal with them by the trade union movement in Nigeria are analysed.. It is suggested that globalization requires both economic and political responses from the trade union movement in Nigeria.