Africa labour news
RSS FeedEgypt: One year on, the labour revolution is stalling
2012-01-24, Issue 567
On 30 January, only five days into the revolution, the Egyptian Federation of Independent Trade Unions was born, the first such federation to be established since the union movement was monopolized by the state-controlled Egyptian Trade Union Federat...
Zambia: Striking Zambian miners win back jobs and pay hike
2011-11-22, Issue 559
Zambian miners ended a two week old strike for better pay in early November, winning back their jobs and a pay hike from a Chinese firm. Union officials said it was a sign that Chinese-owned companies in Zambia are starting to bow to government press...
Global: Jobs crisis threatens global wave of social unrest, warns ILO
2011-11-02, Issue 556
The International Labour Organisation has warned that a jobs crisis caused by the slowdown in the global economy threatens a wave of widespread social unrest engulfing both rich and poor countries. 'We have reached the moment of truth,' said Raymond ...
Zambia: Report charges abuse in Chinese copper mines
2011-11-07, Issue 556
Chinese-run copper mining companies in Zambia routinely flout labour laws and regulations designed to protect workers’ safety and the right to organise, Human Rights Watch says in a new report. The 122-page report, '"You’ll Be Fired If You Refuse"': ...
Global: Widespread abuse of workers’ rights
2011-10-31, Issue 554
More than a quarter of countries represented at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Perth have failed to allow basic industrial rights for workers, the ACTU said. ACTU President Ged Kearney said a survey by the Commonwealth Trade Union Gr...
Zambia: ZCTU welcomes Sata on minimum wage
2011-10-04, Issue 551
The Zambia Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) has welcomed President Michael Sata’s directive to the Ministry of Labour to immediately revise the minimum wage. Sata last week directed the minister of labour Fackson Shamenda to work at revising the minim...
Egypt: Some public transit workers return to work after strike
2011-10-05, Issue 551
Some of Egypt’s Public Transit Authority (PTA) workers returned to work 4 October, after striking for two weeks. Workers from the Giza and Imbaba transit garages have remained on strike, however. The workers were on strike to demand fair wages and be...
Algeria: Call for harassment against union leaders to stop
2011-10-05, Issue 551
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN), the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), the Action...
Botswana: Unions fight government in court
2011-09-27, Issue 550
Botswana labour unions have asked a court to force the government to reinstate about 2 600 public service workers fired during the country's first national strike in April. 'Our comrades were participating in a legal strike and the government has no ...
Global: Trade unions and the global crisis
2011-09-29, Issue 550
Four years after the Great Recession, a catastrophe has been avoided, but few real lessons have been drawn and nothing has been fixed, says this report from the International Labour Organisation. 'Indeed, in many cases the crisis is being used as ano...
South Africa: Municipal workers walk off the job
2011-08-15, Issue 544
At least 145,000 South African municipal workers will walk off the job on Monday in a strike aimed at shutting down services including rubbish collection, in the latest dispute to disrupt Africa's biggest economy. 'Our demand of an 18% increase acros...
South Africa: Fuel union says employers 'not listening'
2011-07-19, Issue 540
South Africa's fuel workers' union has rejected a minimum eight per cent wage increase and is holding out for a double-digit hike, the union's chief negotiator said on Tuesday (19 July).The strike has left petrol stations dry across South Africa for ...
South Africa: Tribunal could alter Walmart conditions
2011-07-25, Issue 540
The conditions agreed to by Walmart and Massmart as part of the Competition Tribunal’s conditional approval of their merger could be abandoned if the case has to be reheard by the tribunal. This is just one of the possible outcomes of what is increas...
Egypt: Independent trade unions endorse BDS
2011-07-13, Issue 539
Kamal Abu Aita, representative of the Egyptian Independent Union Federation (EIUF) which was recently formed in Tahrir Square during the revolution, has confirmed that the EIUF rejects any attempt to ‘normalise' relations with Israel. In a speech in ...
South Africa: Decent work does not cause unemployment
Alternative Information Development Centre statement
2011-07-14, Issue 539
'The profiteering of SA’s businesses (enabled by lax compliance with labour law and weak regulation of trade and capital flows) stand in the way of creating decent jobs that can offer the majority of South Africa’s the dignity prescribed in our Const...
South Africa: Numsa workers return to work
2011-07-18, Issue 539
The violent two-week metalworkers strike has ended, with some workers gaining a 10 per cent wage increase. Eight of the nine National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa (Numsa) regions accepted the offer, bringing an end to a strike that brought ...
South Africa: Strikers shot, says Numsa
2011-07-07, Issue 538
Four Numsa members were injured when police shot them with rubber bullets during an engineering sector strike in Krugersdorp, west of Johannesburg, the metalworkers' union claimed on Thursday, 7 July. The union's spokesman Castro Ngobese said the fou...
South Africa: Union appeals Wal-Mart decision
2011-06-29, Issue 537
The South African Commercial Catering and Allied Workers' Union (Saccawu) has filed an appeal against the Competition Tribunal's decision to allow Walmart to acquire a controlling stake in Massmart. The Competition Tribunal was due to give reasons on...
Swaziland: Unions plan another showdown with government
2011-06-20, Issue 535
Swaziland's labour unions are planning a series of further strikes to voice their feelings about proposed wage cuts and to lobby the government for regime change. Sibongile Mazibuko, the president of the Swaziland National Association of Teachers, sa...
Africa: Uniting formal and informal economies
2011-05-30, Issue 532
Charles Dan is Africa Director of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the UN agency responsible for promoting and supporting worldwide labour rights. In a debate on job creation at the World Economic Forum on Africa, Dan called for a breakin...
Botswana: Breakthrough in state strike
2011-05-30, Issue 532
Botswana public sector unions said on Monday (30 May) they had conditionally accepted a three per cent pay rise but a six-week strike that has shaken the ruling party's 45-year grip on power would continue until all demands were met. A spokesman for ...
South Africa: SA approves Wal-Mart deal
2011-05-31, Issue 532
South African competition authorities approved Wal-Mart's $2.4 billion bid for Massmart on Tuesday (31 May), saying the retailer must not fire workers for two years. The conditions imposed on the deal - including a programme for developing local supp...
Africa: Economic crisis opens up potential for discrimination at work, says ILO
2011-05-18, Issue 530
In the new Global Report on Equality at Work 2011, the International Labour Office (ILO) notes that in spite of continuous positive advances in anti-discrimination legislation, the global economic and social crisis has led to a higher risk of discrim...
South Africa: Reject Walmart deal, says Cosatu
2011-05-09, Issue 529
Cosatu has called on the Competition Tribunal to reject Walmart's planned acquisition of Massmart, spokesman Patrick Craven said. The Anti-Walmart Coalition - consisting of various trade unions, including the SA Commercial, Catering and Allied Worker...
Egypt: Workers occupy factory, demand rights
2011-05-10, Issue 529
Inspired by the January revolution, Egyptian workers are occupying a closed factory and demanding that they be compensated. The workers say the factory was profitable, but was privatised, sold at below market rates and stripped of its assets. This vi...
Global: Myths and realities about domestic workers
2011-05-16, Issue 529
In preparation for the upcoming 2011 International Labour Conference (ILC), the International Domestic Workers' Network (IDWN) has prepared a pamphlet to rebut common arguments against passing the ILO Convention enabling rights and protections for do...
South Africa: Casual jobs threat to fulltime workers
2011-05-03, Issue 527
The latest statistics by JSE-listed job placement company, Adcorp, show that since January 2000 permanent employment declined by 20.9 per cent while contract and other forms of employment increased by 64.1 per cent. This, says the company’s March emp...
Global: Formation of Palestinian Trade Union Coalition
2011-05-09, Issue 527
The first Palestinian trade union conference for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel (BDS) was held in Ramallah on 30 April 2011, organised by almost the entirety of the Palestinian trade union movement, including federations, professio...
South Africa: Rise in mine deaths
2011-04-12, Issue 525
Deaths at South African mines increased by 27 per cent in the first three months of the year, compared with the same period last year. Department of Mineral Resources spokeswoman Zingaphi Jakuja said that there were 38 fatalities reported from 1 Janu...
Mozambique: Police attack protesting workers
2011-04-13, Issue 525
On 6 April, officials of a branch of the Police of the Republic of Mozambique (PRM) - the Rapid Intervention Force (FIR) - used violence to put an end to a protest by the employees of the private security firm Group Four Security (G4S). Allegedly, re...
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