COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AND CRISIS RESOLUTION IN NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES
Authors:
Nikade Ekiotonye & Stanfast Suotonye Barnabas (PhD)
Abstract:
Strike actions by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and other allied educational unions has taken such deplorable and impairing turn due to its incessant nature; this has left not only the students and others in the academic sphere but the entire citizenry of Nigeria greatly concerned. Worthy of note is the fact that these incessant strikes are just the aggrieved lecturers and non-academic staff way of showing their discontentment and disapproval of the prevalent state of deterioration and disrepair in higher education in Nigeria. Considering the diverse advantages of Collective Bargaining as a tool for crisis resolution to both Bargaining Parties (ASUU and Federal Government); this paper examines Collective Bargaining as a mechanism for crisis resolution in Nigerian Universities. It will be discovered from this paper that Collective Bargaining if rightly and properly done has the potential to promote amicable dispute resolution, improve the working relationship, foster a feeling of mutual respect, enhance the sense of responsibility of bargaining parties and appeal to their morals; create and sustain peace which will lead to the stability and efficiency of academic programs of Nigerian Universities, create optimum man-power for the nation and by extension a better and stronger economy and nation in its entirety.