May Day also known as Workers’ Day stems from ancient customs observed in many countries to celebrate the coming of spring. It is also a national holiday for workers in many countries around the world. May Day, or International Workers’ Day, celebrates labour’s ongoing battle for social justice and commemorates the Haymarket Martyrs killed in Chicago in 1886 during the struggle for the eight-hour day. In almost every country in the world, workers celebrate May 1st as May Day or International Workers’ Day. It is a national holiday in more than 80 countries. Working people around the world have always had to struggle to win decent wages and safe working conditions. May Day was created to commemorate one of the many events in labour history in many countries around the world, Nigeria inclusive. In memory of this struggle and the struggle of all workers for better conditions, May 1st was declared an eight-hour holiday in 1889 by the International Workers’ Congress in Paris.
THE STRUGGLE IN NIGERIA
Labour unions have been a part of Nigeria’s employment history since 1912 when government employees formed a civil service union. In 1914, this organization became the Nigerian Union of Civil Servants after the merger of the protectorates of Northern Nigeria and Southern Nigeria. In 1931, two other major unions were founded- the Nigerian Railway Workers Union and the Nigerian Union of Teachers (which included private-school teachers). Legalization of unions in 1938 was followed by rapid labour organization during World War II as a result of passage by the British government of the Colonial Development and Welfare Act of 1940, which encouraged the establishment of unions in the colonies.
In June and July of 1945, 43,000 workers, most of whom were performing services indispensable to the country’s economic and administrative life, went on a strike that lasted more than forty days. Largely due to the strike’s success, the labour movement grew steadily and by 1950, there were 144 unions with more than 144,000 members. In 1963 union members numbered 300,000, or 1.6 percent of the labour force. Despite this low level of organization, labour discontent worsened as the gap widened between the wages of white-collar (designating salaried professional) and those of blue-collar workers (designating manual industrial workers)
In the year 1964, the salary margin between supervisors, daily-wage workers, and semiskilled workers in public service was very wide (a supervisor collected thirty- three times more). After independence, many workers had begun to feel that the political leadership was making no effort to reduce the inequalities of the colonial wage and benefit structure that would protect their livelihoods or improve their working conditions. In April 1963, pay raise for ministers and members of parliament further stimulated labour resentment because rank-and-file civil servants had been deprived of salary raises since 1960. The five superordinate central labour organizations consequently formed the Joint Action Committee (JAC) to pressure the government to raise wages.
Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC)
Founded in 1978 from the merger of four different organizations, the NLC is an umbrella organization that brings together approximately thirty labour unions in Nigeria. The organization has been on the forefront of the struggles for workers’ rights and in favor of democratic reform. In the early 1980s, the civilian government found itself losing control of organized labour. Numerous strikes occurred in 1980-81, and in May 1981, the NLC mobilized 700,000 of 1 million unionized Nigerian workers for a two-day strike, despite the opposition of a government-supported faction. Working days lost through strikes declined from 9.6 million in 1982 to 200,000 in 1985 in the midst of a decline in national income that had begun in 1983. Industrial unrest resulted, however, from demands by a large number of workers for payments of salary arrears and fringe benefits as real wages fell by almost 60 percent. The causes of the decline in real wages were the World Bank-advised SAP (Structural Adjustment Programme) and the unfavorable terms of trade that resulted from the collapse of the world oil market between 1986 and 1989.
In Nigeria, May Day as a holiday was first declared by the People Redemption Party (PRP) Government of Kano State in 1980. It became a national holiday on May 1, 1981. During military rule, the NLC was dissolved twice and its leaders arrested. Following the return to democracy in the year 1999, the NLC has become one of the largest trade union organizations in the country.
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