Trade Unions, Institutional Reform and Democracy: Nigerian Experiences with South African and Ugandan Comparisons

Abstract

This paper is about the capacity of trade unions to intervene in a context of political and economic reform, in the interests of their own members, and in support of wider popular interests in society. It focuses on the formation of a union-based labour regime as a key area of institutional reform, creating the conditions for such democratic intervention. I begin by recalling the case against trade unions — why they are seen as an obstacle to reform, and why it is expected, anyway, that they will increasingly be marginalised in the context of globalisation. In developing the case for seeing unions as important institutions of popular representation I propose a different reading of global tendencies, suggesting that unions are in fact on the rise. Turning to Africa, where it has been assumed that this is least likely to happen, I refer to great variations in union performance, including exceptional achievements in South Africa and repression and marginalisation in Uganda. These two contrasting experiences are briefly summarized. The main empirical illustrations, however, are from Nigeria, where I have studied the national union centre, the Nigeria Labour Congress, and, in particular, the textile workers union.