Few days to 2014, there are signs that industrial disaffection may define labour relations in the country in the year. At least seven major unions in three critical sectors - education, health and oil and gas - are on the brink of baptising the year with strike actions.
The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics and their non-academic counterpart have been on strike since November, with government yet to meet their demands. For the poor progress in meeting their demands, the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) embarked on an industrial action from Wednesday, December 18, 2013. It was a five-day warning strike that will resume full blown by January 6, if issues in the health sector are not resolved. Fuelling the frenzy in the oil and gas sector are the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and the Petroleum and National Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), over the federal government's stance on the privatisation of the nation's four oil refineries by the first quarter of 2014.
...