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African Trade Unions and Africa's Future

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African Trade Unions and Africa's Future Cover: Firestone Agricultural Workers Union of Liberia (FAWUL) members, Liberia. All photographs were taken by Imani Countess, Solidarity Center in 2013 unless otherwise noted. ISBN Number: 978-0-692-23014-5 © Copyright June 2014 by the Solidarity Center. African Trade Unions and Africa’s Future: Strategic Choices i n a Changing World Summary report based on surveys and other research by Solidarity Center staff and consultants March 1 – October 10, 2013 By William Minter, Ph.D. April 2014 Djibouti Nigeria ✸ Sierra Leone South Sudan Liberia Cameroon Somalia Uganda Kenya Rwanda ✸ Burundi Tanzania Regional Offices: ✸ Abuja, Nigeria ✸ Nairobi, Kenya Zambia Zimbabwe Country Offices: Zimbabwe Mozambique South Africa (including Swaziland) Swaziland South Africa Contents Foreword ........................................................................ 2 Kwasi Adu-Amankwah, General Secretary, ITUC-Africa Preface .......................................................................... 5 Abbreviations ..................................................................... 8 I. Key Findings and Implications ..................................................... 10 II. Survey Results ................................................................. 16 Chapter 1: Africa Is Rising—But Good Jobs Lag Behind .................................... 17 Chapter 2: African Governments and Worker Rights: Fine Words, Sober Realities ............... 30 Chapter 3: Internal Challenges to the Trade Union Movement .............................. 40 Chapter 4: Women and Trade Unions.................................................. 52 Chapter 5: Changing the Policy Environment ........................................... 68 III. Country Overviews ............................................................. 76 Chapter 1: Southern Africa .......................................................... 77 Chapter 2: East Africa .............................................................. 84 Chapter 3: West Africa ............................................................. 88 IV. Annexes ...................................................................... 92 Annex 1: Interviews Completed for Solidarity Center Survey ............................... 93 Annex 2: Interviewee Affiliations ..................................................... 95 Annex 3: Survey Questionnaire....................................................... 98 Annex 4: Web Resources............................................................ 102 Annex 5: Other Publications ......................................................... 106 CONTENTS 1 Foreword By Kwasi Adu-Amankwah General Secretary, African Regional Organization of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC-Africa) he Solidarity Center report titled African Trade The report highlights the overall preoccupation of Unions and Africa’s Future: Strategic Choices governments with macroeconomic stability and in a Changing World is a valuable document Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth, which are not Tthat provides useful reflection and insight on the necessarily related to expanded employment and African labor market and trade union situation. job creation nor to improved incomes and liveli- The report is based mainly on a survey of nine hoods. Reports by international agencies celebrate countries, eight with English as the official language, high rates of growth in a range of African countries one with Portuguese. Five of the countries are in and an inflow of investments, including from new Southern Africa, namely, Mozambique, South Africa, partners such as China and Arabian Gulf States. But Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe; three in West as this survey shows, such growth has not automati- Africa, namely, Ghana, Liberia and Nigeria; and one cally translated into better well-being for the people. in East Africa, Kenya. More striking, as the result of economic growth, are new trends in the labor market such as outsourcing, The survey shows that trade unions have played subcontracting, growing informality and the rise of precarious jobs—all of which have had consequences a significant part in the political and economic for trade unions. lives of their countries. The survey shows that trade unions have played a significant part in the political and economic lives of their countries. Among other things, unions have played key roles in: • The decolonization and national liberation struggles; • Promoting and defending democratic institutions after the formal achievement of political rights; • Participating in organized structures for social dia- logue or administration of public benefits, which require specialized personnel knowledgeable about these areas; • Mobilizing on policy issues of particular interest to workers, such as minimum wage legislation and the scope of coverage of social insurance; and • Participating in debates about the economic policy strategies of government. An array of conventions at the international level and laws at the national level offer potential for protect- ing the rights and interests of workers. All too often, Emmanual Barchue, 2013 Barchue, Emmanual FAWUL members with Imani Countess. however, these legal instruments are not utilized for 2 African Trade Unions and Africa’s Future: STRatEGIC CHOICES IN A CHANGING WORLD the benefit of workers, largely because of unwilling- country while also addressing broad issues of indus- ness or inability of governments to enforce them and trialization, regional integration, domestic control the failure of trade unions to ensure compliance. over policy and reclaiming cultural heritage: in sum, an alternative paradigm for development in Africa. This in turn relates to the capacity of trade unions to function as solid organizations that can defend, protect The trade union movement in Africa faces enormous and advance the interests of workers and meet their challenges arising from the critical situation that expectations. Issues of concern include the shrinking confronts Africa and its people. The African people traditional base of trade unions in the formal sector, have been losers in their encounters with other lack of resources from inadequate subscriptions and civilizations over several centuries, with nega- other sources, inadequate research capacity and insuf- tive consequences for the material well-being of ficient specialized personnel and skills for negotiations the majority of Africans. In the development of the with employers and governments. modern state, from the colonial era into what can be described today as the neocolonial era, the systems As part of the response to their changing fortunes, of governance and institutions of public authority that the survey shows, most unions now attach consider- have emerged often do not serve the interests of the able importance to organizing in the informal econ- people. Genuine leadership is needed to steer Africa omy. Unions have also, over more than a decade, paid out of its difficulties and enable Africa and its people increasing attention to enhancing the participation to progress. of women in the trade union movement and in union leadership, a theme well developed in the report. Since precolonial times, popular organization and mass mobilization have been central to advancing the Given that it is based on a single survey covering interests of the African people. Trade unions across a limited sample of nine countries, the report does large parts of Africa marshaled popular forces and not and cannot provide a comprehensive picture of played significant roles in the anti-colonial struggle. trade unionism across Africa. In particular, it does not In the post-colonial era, unions have continued, include insights from the trade union movement in albeit with varying degrees of success, to play crucial the French-speaking countries of West and Central roles in protecting the economic and social rights Africa, most notably the Democratic Republic of the of workers and in securing benefits for them in the Congo. A trend mentioned in the report that merits midst of the overall difficulties facing the African further research, and which is especially notable in masses. In the modern history of Africa, therefore, the French-speaking countries, is the fragmenta- the union movement has emerged as an important tion of unions. This results in multiple national trade source of countervailing power for securing short- to union centers, most of them unsustainable on their medium-term benefits for workers directly and for own, competing for the loyalties of a formal-sector pushing the frontiers of politics and policy in the labor force that is a relatively small proportion of the direction of social transformation for the benefit of the labor force in the country. people as a whole. The report also does not address the particularly diffi- Neoliberal globalization has brought growing poverty cult environments for unions in countries such as those and misery to the world’s working poor and unem- in North Africa, where unions must navigate between ployed, as well as rising inequalities within coun- powerful governments on the one hand and the tries and between regions of the world. Against this threats of fundamentalism and terrorism on the other. backdrop, there is an urgent need for trade union More generally, it is essential that African trade renewal. African trade unions need to get more unions consider not only the particular issues raised workers organized and mobilized to secure day-to- by this report but also the wider framework
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