A CRITICAL STUDY OF THE KEY CHALLENGES OF TRADE UNIONISM IN NIGERIA’S FOURTH REPUBLIC
A CRITICAL STUDY OF THE KEY CHALLENGES OF TRADE UNIONISM IN NIGERIA’S FOURTH REPUBLIC

Summary/Abstract: Trade unions are basically an integral part of liberal democratic society. They are an im-portant part of the fabric of the Nigerian society, providing social, economic, political and psychological benefits for their members as well as the platform for participation in mana-gerial functions in government and work industry. It is worrisome that in recent times, trade unions in Nigeria are witnessing serious challenges that tend to militate against their performance. This paper therefore examines the challenges in Nigeria’ fourth republic, using the Marxist theory of class conflicts as theoretical framework of analysis. A qualita-tive research method was adopted and was content analyzed in relation to the scope of the paper. The paper observes that lack of committed leadership, lack of internal democracy, government intervention, tribalism and nepotism, internal factionalism, apathetic attitude, poor economic climate and non-affiliation with foreign union are the major challenges that trade unions in Nigeria currently face. The paper recommends among others that trade unions should imbibe the tenets of democracy in their internal administration.

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