CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 INTRODUCTION
Strike generally could be defined as the refusal to work by employees of an establishment to protest for certain inadequacies in their conditions of service.
Strike is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. Strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances.
In most countries, they were quickly made illegal as factory owners hand political power than workers. Most Western countries partially legalized striking in the 19th or ea 20th centuries.
Strikes are sometimes used to put pressure on government to change policies. It will also be noted that strike is not peculiar to universities alone but to other organizations or pressure groups such as:
1. Nigeria labour Congress (NLC)
2. Nigeria Bar Association (NBA)
3. Nigeria Union of Journalist (NUJ)
4. Nigeria Medical Association (NMA)
Higher Institutions that are liable to embank on strike actions include:-
1. The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUNU)
2. The National Association of Nigeria Students (NANS)
3. The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP)
4. The Academic Staff Union of College of Education etc
When strike occurs in an organization, workers suffer most and in this way, the Nigeria working system has been thoroughly destroyed.
There is no way to remedy this situation apart from the individual employees concerned to stand up and demand for their right.
Although, strike may create temporary difficulties for workers in the sense that it will stop their work and without their work, they won`t earn a living. this situation of our country Nigeria will not be fully developed because they will be back of or less production because of the strike action management has not put its priorities right. it is in protest of these misplaced priorities and inadequacies that these management and Nigeria union of worker. ie the Nigeria labour congress (NLC).
In most cases, the employers and the employees would have explored all avenues for dialogue and strike becomes the last option for the settlement of disputes.
Before the introduction of strike among Nigeria worker in the years 1963 by PA Imodu, the authorities have always worked in peace and harmony with their privilege to work as an employee in any organization because they always had great expectations both the senior and the junior staff worked happily together as members of the same community and guided by a sense of mission to promote and preserve their working performance.
Today, the issue of strike in our country has been so rampant that the government will have to do something urgently so as not to Jeopardize the interest of the employees on how to improve their performance and productivity in their place of work. But before the emergence of union, there had been spontaneous strike and protests against poor conditions of work in several African countries.
In the strike that took place in sierra-leane in 1874. In Senegal, rail road workers had frequently engaged in sporadic strikes against the dehumanizing conditions of work.
In practice, however, it has been difficult to separate strike from other forms of expression of industrial dispute as employers lock out workers and workers them-selves embank on strike action. it is or 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 others issues that are not immediately apparent to the observation that have caused dis-satisfaction because solutions to them have been long in coming. The actual occurrence of a strike depends on several factors including prevailing circumstance. This also goes to show that few strikes occur spontaneously especially as there is no way of guaranteeing that a strike action instead of other forms of strike action would be decided upon by worker involved.