CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1   BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
The term trade union has a variety of meanings depending on the perception of workers and the definition imposed by the legal frameworks in many countries.
Some workers organizations call themselves staff or professional associations, or senior staff associations, but all these are valid examples of trade unions. Furthermore, trade union laws in the. UK and Nigeria defines a trade union as:
"Any combination whether temporary or permanent, the principal objectives of which under it's constitution are.......... the regulation of the relationship between workmen or between masters and masters, or the imposing of restrictive conditions on the conduct of any trade or business and also the provision of benefits to members".
An alternative definition of the term Trade Union is "...an association of wage/salary earners formed with the objective of safeguarding and improving the wage and employment conditions of it's members and to raise members social status and standard of living in the community.
The above definition emphasizes the sale and purchase of labour power as a factor of production. The emphasis on the terms, conditions of service is perhaps the factor that distinguishes trade union from social clubs and other political organization.
For although all these social groups may show interest in workers' welfare but only the trade union is accorded the legal recognition to negotiate terms and conditions of work on behalf of it's members.
However, the law governing the trade union formation and organization is the Trade Union Acts 1973 and the Trade Union Amendment Act (Decree 22) of 1978 and the Amendment Act of 1979. The law., were further amended in 1990 and 1996. The Trade Unions Act Cap 437 LFN, 1990 which makes provisions with respect to the formation and general organization of trade unions. In 1996 Trade Unions (amendment) Decree 4 of 1996 restructured affiliates of the Nigerian Labour Congress to 29 Decree 22 restructured Trade Unions primarily along industrial line.
For it to be recognized as a trade union it has to be registered which entails to:
1.     Get an application form from the registrar of Trade Union.
2.     Fill the form and return with the signature of at least 50 members for workers and at least 2 members in the case of employers.
3.     Every registration requires the approval of the Minister of Employment Labour and Productivity.
4.     Issuance of certificate of registration under the present law, 3 types of unions are recognized.
(i)     Those belonging to junior workers.
(ii)    Those belonging to senior workers
(iii)   Those belonging to employers.
Union was formally organized in the public sector in 1912. It was the Civil Service Union (CSU) formed possibly because it was the vogue of the African Countries. In 1931, two other unions were formed: The Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) and The Railway Workers Union (RWU). The RWU was part of the CSU until it broke off because of dissatisfactical with the tempo with which the CSU was pursuing industrial relations activities. But the position of the CSU could be better understood if we consider the cultural environment at the time. Workers looked upon the colonial employer (largely government) as a kind of father figure. Such arbitrary paternalism connotes that the employer was revered over much with a lot of loyalty and this partly explain the slow tempo of industrial activates by the union of government workers. Besides, by definition, the civil service is supposed to be an institution of the state just like the judiciary, police or army. Clearly, it may amount to contradiction for the state to unionize against itself. This sort of sovereignty-induced arguments could have been used to brainwash civil servants and to discourage them from militant unionism. At any rate, the RWU broke off from the CSU.
Similarly, the NUT want a better forum where they could maintain good professionalism and forge a good standard of education in Nigeria. The NUT was also dissatisfied with the wide differential that existed in the wages of government teachers and their mission school counterparts, formal organization of workers into unions dated back to 1912. Yet no significant development in industrial relations took place until the late t930's.
In 1938, the absence of legal backing for Nigeria Labour Unions was removed when the colonial administration passed the trade union ordinance into law and this facilitated the formation of new ones.
Specifically, the law allowed any group of five or more workers to form a trade union. Most of the unions that emerged were centered around one employer or one enterprise and comprised of few members indeed. The result was of course the growth of large number of ineffective trade unions, which continued until the 1970's.
Other factor perhaps played equally important part in charting the nurse of development in Nigeria Trade Union movement.
These factors are the 1939-45 world war, and the emerging nationalist movement. The war brought serious hardship both to workers and the general public in the form of acute shortages of essential commodities with the corresponding, rise in prices and stagnant money wage (Otobo, 1987). So when rationing was introduced in Lagos, workers joined trade unions in large number.
The central trade union the country is the NLC (Nigeria Labour Con tress) Trade Unions to a large extent, has played a significant role in transformation witnessed in the condition of workers over time.