Steyr-Nigeria: The Recession and Workers’ Struggles in the Vehicle Assembly Plant

On 10 October 1985, the workers of Steyr-Nigeria in Bauchi force-marched the managing director of the company out of the factory premises and told him not to return to the factory until he was ready to negotiate with their union officials. Other management staff, local and foreign, either took to their heels or went into hiding to avoid coming into contact with the highly provoked and agitated workers. The workers were protesting against the deteriorating conditions of work and management’s anti-labour rationalization policies, following the decline of the Nigerian economy and the massive reduction in import licences, necessary for the importation of parts. Similar demonstrations took place a week before, on 4 October, at Peugeot Automobile of Nigeria (PAN) in Kaduna and a few weeks later at Volkswagen of Nigeria (VON) in Lagos in December 1985.