Trade unions and labour productivity in Nigeria between 1990-2010

Trade unions are established to safeguard and be the workers umpire. The reason behind the formation of trade unions is to improve the socio-economic wellbeing of their members, mainly by increasing wages and salaries to the reasonable level. Over the years, Nigerian labor union has been one of the most popular umbrella of every organizational workforce, with an aspiration to guide and protect the right, interest and life of every employee from encroaching on their economic right and the abuse of their self-esteem by their employers. Thus, this paper investigates trade unions and labor productivity in Nigeria between 1990-2010. To investigate this relationship two groups of data are used which can be defined trade unions variables and labor productivity variables of Nigeria. The following trade union variables were used; training and workshops on staff productivity, demand for increase wage and salary to improve productivity, demand for basic amenities and facilities for workers, demand for leave grants and leisure time for workers, demand for improve welfare conditions and encouragement of the provision of manpower training and development. The used labor productivity variables are whether the respondent delivered their services to the client at a productive rate that is high, moderate or low. And whether they perform the office work in line with Service Compact (SERVICOM) requirements at a high, moderate or low rate. In the empirical application, descriptive statistics, percentages, frequencies, regression analysis are used. The results showed that, even though, the organizations spend most of their resources to meet the demands of the labor unions, this has not transform into high productivity for the organizations. The results further showed that there is negative relationship between trade unions and staff productivity, because activities of trade unions do not improve labor productivity in Nigeria.