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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Worker consciousness and shopfloor struggles: a case study of Nigerian refinery workers
Author:Adesina, J.O.ISNI
Year:1989
Periodical:Labour, Capital and Society
Volume:22
Issue:2
Pages:288-319
Language:English
Geographic term:Nigeria
Subjects:professional ethics
class consciousness
labour
labour conflicts
Abstract:This paper is based on research conducted among refinery workers in a refinery owned by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in Warri, Bendel State, southern Nigeria, between 1985 and 1987. In outlining the complex sources of worker consciousness, the emphasis of the analysis is on both the complex interpenetration of work and non-workplace sources, and their contradictory character as elements in worker consciousness. These issues are discussed with reference to workers' location in the production process, work ideology, and perception of work hazard. The case of worker perception of work hazard is used to illustrate the extent to which people's experience of a phenomenon is not enough in accounting for their perception. The author argues that the contradictory elements of workers' consciousness result from the twin issues of workers' lived experiences, and their mediation by the ideological efforts of the functionaries of capital and State, as well as the multi-layered nature of social relations. Next, the author focuses on workers' perception of the distributional relations in the refinery, and the creation and articulation of a collective identity (the 'poor man' worker). In conclusion, the author explores how workers' perception of their location in the relations of production feeds into shopfloor resistance or oppositional activities. He argues that these oppositional activities are often rooted in the 'pursuit of autonomy'. Notes, ref., sum. in French.