Labour disputes have become regular occurrences in Nigeria and the right to trade unionism has been constantly abused. Such unionism abuses and disputes often results in low productivity, which in turn affects the demand and supply chain of the economy. The laws in the country are always not abided by, so rather than bargaining, unions embark on strike as first resort, thereby constantly disrupting industrial harmony and academic activities in Nigerian Universities. The objective of the study was to examine the influence of labour unionism on industrial harmony and academic excellence in university education programmes in Cross River State, Nigeria. Survey research design was adopted for the study. The study population was the principal officers in the management and administrative cadre of the public Universities in Cross River State. Purposive sampling approach was used to select all the principal officers of the Universities because the population was manageable. A total 380instruments was administered for which 363 favourably responded. An instrument titled: Managing Labour Unionism for Industrial Harmony and Academic Excellence in University Education Programmes Questionnaire (MLUIHAEUEPQ) was used to elicit information from the respondents. Data collected were analyzed by means of simple linear regression. Finding revealed that labour negotiation and collective bargaining significantly influenced industrial harmony and academic excellence in university education programmes in terms of stable school calendar, staff productivity and effective communication among the employees. Based on the findings of this study it was therefore recommended that the management of labour unions in Nigerian Universities should be detached from the influence of the government and the university principal officers. Also, labour unions should be allowed to operate as a single entity representing and protecting the interest of their members devoid of unnecessary interference by the university management.
Keywords: Academic Excellence, Industrial Harmony, Labour unionism, University Education
