Global trade without labour, a time bomb for job insecurity

… arsenic WTO demands urgent enactment to shield workers from AI disruption

By Victor Ahiuma-Young

Since the instauration of the World Trade Organisation, WTO, successful 1995, planetary commercialized has grown tremendously—transforming economies, boosting exports, and creating billion-dollar corporations. But beneath the mind-boggling figures lies a disturbing reality:  workers — the precise motor of accumulation and services — person been consistently sidelined successful commercialized negotiations.

Sadly, the satellite economical leaders person failed to admit the information that Labour Creates Wealth arsenic Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC’s motto reads.   

The continued exclusion of commercialized unions crossed the satellite is not lone unacceptable but besides unjust and dangerous. The neglect of this captious stakeholder has led to the decease of galore industries successful processing countries, including Nigeria, resulting successful monolithic occupation losses, rising inequality, erosion of labour rights, and mounting insecurity linked to commercialized agreements that disregard occupation instauration and employment security.

One of the earliest casualties of labour’s exclusion has been employment itself. Since inception, WTO’s accent connected liberalisation and unfastened markets has favoured overseas investors and multinational corporations implicit section industries and workers.

For instance, the removal of commercialized barriers led to the illness of galore tiny and medium-scale industries successful processing countries, pushing millions into unemployment. Before Nigeria became a founding subordinate of the WTO connected January 1, 1995, the textile assemblage had implicit 250 textile and garment mills, including fabric processing companies, employing implicit 500,000 people. The assemblage was past the second-largest leader of labour aft government.

Today, the assemblage tin hardly boast of a twelve operational factories nationwide, providing less than 15,000 jobs pursuing dependable closures and layoffs. 

Meanwhile, cheaper overseas goods—often smuggled into the country—have flooded the market. Similar destiny befell the leather and tyre industries, with once-vibrant firms specified arsenic Bata, Lennard Shoes, Michelin, and Dunlop shutting down and throwing their workers into the occupation market.

Trade liberalisation promised prosperity, but for workers, it has meant occupation insecurity, outsourcing, casualisation, and wage suppression. Without unions astatine the negotiating table, the destiny of workers and their livelihoods is often traded distant successful the good people of agreements designed for nett maximization and superior growth.

The International Labour Organisation, ILO, has repeatedly highlighted that the gains of planetary commercialized are unevenly distributed — with superior reaping the astir benefits portion labour struggles for survival. By excluding unions, commercialized deals seldom see labour clauses to support workers’ rights, starring to exploitative conditions arsenic seen successful Nigeria and galore different processing countries. This has aggravated issues specified arsenic unsafe workplaces, kid labour, and poorness wages.

Evidence abounds linking joblessness and increasing insecurity successful Nigeria and different processing economies. As the saying goes, an idle caput is the devil’s workshop.

Experts pass that rising unemployment, particularly among youths, contributes straight to societal unrest, migration crises, and recruitment into extremist movements.

Observers person consistently cautioned that a planetary commercialized strategy that ignores workers is simply a look for insecurity. 

When radical suffer anticipation successful employment, decent work, and just wages, they edifice to restiveness and hopeless alternatives—fuelling instability everywhere.

On September 15, 2025, WTO members signed the Agreement connected Fisheries Subsidies, which Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala described astatine a peculiar General Council gathering successful Geneva arsenic “a landmark for planetary commercialized governance,” emphasizing that practice done multilateralism remains indispensable for addressing planetary challenges.

Okonjo-Iweala urged each remaining WTO members to implicit their ratifications up of the organisation’s 14th Ministerial Conference successful March 2026.

“One of my cardinal aspirations is to spot the ...