Social relations of production in the Nigerian petroleum industry

This paper argues that labour in the Nigerian Petroleum Industry is not homogenous and that the employment conditions of labour are differentially determined according to the type of employment relationship labour entered into with capital. The industry has a dual system of recruitment which confers permanent employment status on one category of labour and contract employment status on another category of labour. We argue that contract labour is a divisionist strategy through which capital perpetuates its domination of labour by fractionalizing labour's bargaining power in order to weaken its resistance.