3 May, 2011In April, the International Metalworkers Federation (IMF) Africa Regional Representative, Steve Nhlapo, met with two trade unions and two staff associations representing metalworkers that have begun the process of merging, to offer support in an effort to bring Nigerian metalworkers back into the IMF family.
NIGERIA: In 2005, the Nigerian government passed the Trade Union Amendment Act. One of the key changes for the labour movement was that union membership would now become voluntary. While such freedom is in principle to be welcomed, it was widely believed that the main aim of this change was to weaken the cohesion and unity of the trade union movement. Former IMF affiliate, Steel & Engineering Workers Union of Nigeria (SEWUN) fell prey to this strategy, unable to manage the challenges of organizational change needed for the union to recruit and organize workers, the union split in four along sub sector lines and was expelled from the IMF in 2008.
Recognizing the need to rebuild worker power through unity two of the emergent unions from SEWUN and two staff associations, made up of workers that were previously not allowed to join a trade union have come together to build one strong union. These parties have made significant progress, having already drafted a constitution. However, the Trade Union Amendment Act does not allow for a trade union to be registered to represent workers in a sector where a trade union already exists, requiring SEWUN to be deregistered.
This part of the Act is one of issues that the ILO has taken up with the Nigerian government, to ensure that workers have the right to form and join organizations of their own choice even if another organization already exists. In the report of the committee of experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations in all member states of the ILO recently released by the ILO headquarters, attention is brought to this part of the act which is in violation of Article 2 of the Convention No. 87 of 1948 on Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize which states that workers have the right to establish and join organizations of their own choice without distinction whatsoever.
Despite this setback, the parties remain committed to a merger and in the meeting formulated a programme of collaboration which includes joint workshops for shop stewards. They have also agreed to joint plant visits and worker meetings as well as to establishing a joint approach to bargaining to strengthen the position of workers in the bargaining council.