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Africa labour news
RSS FeedSouth Africa: UPM statement on the Youth Wage Subsidy
2012-05-21, Issue 585
'The Unemployed People’s Movement rejects the Youth Wage Subsidy as a solution to the unemployment crisis that is leaving millions of young people without a future. We note that there has been a concerted attempt by big business, their academic and media allies and the DA to present workers as lazy and overpaid. This is outrageous. Workers have struggled bravely for a living wage over many years and the gains that have been won must be defended.'
Algeria: Government repression provokes union hunger strike
2012-05-21, Issue 585
The International Trade Union Confederation is demanding that the Algerian authorities stop repression of the country’s emerging independent trade union movement. A wave of harassment of members of the National Independent Union of Public Administration Personnel (SNAPAP) has led to seven members of the union’s board, including four women, starting a hunger strike on 6 May. One of them, Fayza Abrakan, has been admitted to hospital in a serious condition.
South Africa: Jobless youth time bomb
2012-05-08, Issue 584
A young person is three times more likely to be unemployed than an adult globally and if the disparity is not dealt with urgently economic protest will worsen. The International Labour Organisation revealed this and other shocking statistics at the Youth Employment Summit, hosted by the National Youth Development Agency, in Boksburg, East Rand. Unemployment remains high at 23.9 per cent in South Africa, and 70 per cent of the jobless are between the ages of 15 and 34.
Sierra Leone: Worker riot at African Minerals' mine turns deadly
2012-05-02, Issue 583
Two days of rioting over pay by workers from African Minerals' Sierra Leone mine left one woman dead and at least six injured in April, witnesses and medical staff said. African Minerals made its first trial shipment of ore from Tonkolili mine in November last year. Shipments from the mine are due to help Sierra Leone to what the IMF estimates at 35.9 per cent growth this year, one of the highest rates in the world.
Swaziland: Trade unionists beaten
2012-05-02, Issue 583
Two trade unionists in Swaziland were arrested and beaten by police at a May Day rally. They were arrested because they were holding a banner with markings of the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA), a labour organisation that is not recognised by the Swazi Government.
Nigeria: Labour threatens strikes over fuel subsidy
2012-05-02, Issue 583
Labour on May Day threatened to mobilise Nigerians for another street protest if the Federal Government fails to implement the report of the Farouk Lawan-led committee on the probe of the fuel subsidy. The President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Abdulwaheed Omar, who issued the threat in his goodwill message to the May Day celebration in Ibadan, Oyo State, also accused the government of an alleged plans to outlaw strikes.
Ghana: 'Booming economy without jobs'
2012-05-03, Issue 583
The Secretary General of the Trade Union Congress-Ghana (TUC), Brother Kofi Asamoah, has regretted that despite the laudable economic achievements made by Ghana in recent times, the fact remains that joblessness is on the ascendency in the country. 'The reality is that the unprecedented growth rate has failed to create decent jobs for Ghanaians.'
South Africa: Cosatu sets in motion the 'mother of all protests'
2012-04-24, Issue 582
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) will encourage its two million members to take part in a national protest against the e-tolling system, it said. '[Cosatu] is mobilising its two million members for the mother of all protests against the act of highway robbery set to be committed from 30 April 2012 - the Gauteng e-tolls,' spokesperson Patrick Craven said in a statement. Cosatu is planning several rallies, marches, demonstrations and night vigils at the offices of the South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) and the transport department across the country from 23 April.
Ivory Coast: Free jailed Ivory Coast union leader Basile Mahan Gahé
2012-04-16, Issue 581
Basile Mahan Gahé, general secretary of the Ivory Coast national trade union center Dignité remains imprisoned in the remote town of Boundiali - some 700 kilometers from the capital Abidjan - together with common criminals. The United Nations' ILO has now formally added its voice to the international protests calling for his release. Use the form available through the link to send a message to President Ouattara (with copies to Ivory Coast embassies in France, Belgium and around the world as well as embassies in Abidjan) calling for the immediate and unconditional release of Basile Mahan Gahé.
Zambia: Strikers threatened with dismissal
2012-03-20, Issue 578
Michael Sata has threatened to dismiss all public service workers and replace them with staff from his own political party if they take threatened strike action. The staff have threatened to go on strike over prolonged negotiation over salaries and other conditions of service. During his election campaign Sata announced a 100 per cent salary increase for health sector workers, who have since expressed their concern that the promise would not be fulfilled.
Swaziland: Threat of public service strike
2012-03-21, Issue 578
All public service unions in Swaziland are threatening strike action for a 4.5 per cent pay increase. This comes at a time when the Swazi Government is trying to reduce its public sector salary bill by 10 per cent to try to save the kingdom’s economy from meltdown.
Swaziland: New union presses for democracy
2012-03-13, Issue 576
The Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA) will be officially launched 10 - 13 March 2012. The new group is expected to discuss how to step up its campaign for democracy in the kingdom ruled by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch. Major protests are expected in April and May this year. TUCOSWA, which will have about 50,000 members, is an amalgamation of the existing Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions (SFTU) and Swaziland Federation of Labour (SFL). It is hoped that the new group will enable trade unionists in Swaziland to speak with a single voice.
Global: Getting ready for a 1 May general strike
2012-03-12, Issue 574
This year has already seen the largest-ever strike on record in India, hundreds of thousands marching for democracy in Bahrain, general strikes in Montreal and Spain where students once again occupied public space in protest of the austerity measures and spending cuts being enforced by the European banking elite, massive uprisings in the streets of Moscow, and more. Even in the United States, the movement grows. The corporate media claims that Occupy's strength is waning, but they are merely in denial. During the coldest months of this year, the United States has already seen more revolutionary momentum than it has in decades.
South Africa: Huge national strike turnout expected
2012-03-05, Issue 572
Cosatu is expecting a massive turnout for its national strike on Wednesday, and even hopes organisations outside of its network may spontaneously join in - but the union group has been wary of talking numbers, saying the dual nature of Wednesday's action makes turnout even more unpredictable than is usual in such actions. Based on discussions around labour broking within Nedlac, however, it said it believes unions not aligned with it may join in, as might taxpayer groups concerned about road tolls.
South Africa: Second death at strike-hit platinum mine
2012-02-21, Issue 571
A miner was killed in clashes with police at the strike-hit Impala Platinum mine in South Africa, the second death since violence broke out last week, police said on Monday 20 February. 'One miner was found dead with live ammunition in his body, and another was injured with live ammunition,' police spokesman Brigadier Thulani Ngubane told Sapa news agency. Production at Impala, the world's number two platinum producer, has been hobbled since January 20, when some workers began a strike that was declared illegal by a court. That allowed the company to sack workers who did not return to the job, with more than 17,000 people fired. One week ago, Implats agreed to re-hire workers, but the deal failed to address the root cause of the strike - discontent that some categories of workers had been awarded bonuses while others were left out.
Egypt: Calls for general strike see limited appeal
2012-02-14, Issue 570
Marking a year since ousted President Hosni Mubarak handed over power to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) on 11 February 2011, university students have called for a general strike to end military rule, but their calls have yet to mobilize the masses. Osama Ahmed, spokesman of the students of the Revolutionary Socialists movement, said that the strike has not started yet, but that the group has been promoting it and establishing coordination committees to rally the people.
South Africa: Miner dead in platinum mine protest
2012-02-16, Issue 570
Thousands of protesting miners burnt tyres and torched a police office near Impala Platinum's Rustenburg mine in South Africa on Thursday 16 February as a month-long strike at the world's second-largest producer of the precious metal turned violent. Police also said a miner who was beaten up during an overnight demonstration near the Rustenburg plant had died of his injuries.
Egypt: 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...
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