INTERNATIONAL CONFEDERATION OF FREE TRADE UNIONS (ICFTU)

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108/050602/CL

Congolese women in a union that trains "entrepreneurs"!

Brussels, 4 June 2002 (ICFTU OnLine): How can men and women working in the
unprotected "informal economy" be helped to better defend their rights? That
priority concern for the union movement is on the agenda of the
International Labour Conference, which opened in Geneva on 3 June. At the
grass roots level, the unions are establishing contacts and tackling the
"most urgent" problems, so as to ensure the survival of workers subjected to
harassment and dangerous and undignified working conditions. Illustrations
of just how difficult it is to organise people in this sector are given by
Anne-Marie Mambombe and Marie-Josée Lokongo who are responsible,
respectively, for the informal sector and women's issues at the Congolese
UNTC. The sectors they cover range from palm oil production in Kinshasa, to
the fishing industry in Mbandaka or farming in the Lower Congo.

How and for how long have you been in contact with these workers?

A-M. M: Several government measures, such as the "Zaïration" of our economy
in 1973 and the structural adjustment measures of the early 1980s, have
completely destroyed the country's economic structures. Many businesses have
been wound up, involving mass redundancies, particularly of women and
leading in all cases to unemployment. Many of the people affected have then
tried to survive by setting up their own businesses, however they have
lacked start-up capital and management skills and the businesses have not
tended to last long. Since the union was also losing a lot of members we
thought about how best to contact such workers, some of whom were
ex-members, in three specific sectors: small businesses, fishing and
agriculture.

What kind of help have you given?

A-M. M: We want to help these workers with more than just answers to
straightforward questions on employment contracts. You should bear in mind
that such people get a lot of problems from the administration and the
police, since they are not registered as employees and do not, of course,
have contracts. Nonetheless, they also have to pay heavy taxes to the State.
We would like to help them with health care, via our health insurance mutual
society ("mutuelle"), but we cannot afford to fund such services at the
moment. So in 1998 we set up an "enterprise unit" geared to training these
people. I'm personally in charge of the unit and was trained for the job
courtesy of ILO funding. Everyone working in the informal sector is living
from day to day and we need to convince them to look beyond mere survival.
We need to tell them that if they are to be successful they will need to run
their businesses better, and that will also enable them to get credit. So
far we have trained 54 "entrepreneurs", as we like to call them, both to
boost their confidence and to teach them self-reliance. And though it might
seem paradoxical for a union to be training employers, we regard it as a
vital task, since through them we will get new members. All the people we
have trained are now members of a close network and pay fees to our union.
With that money we are able to provide some of the credit requested by other
workers in the relevant sectors.

Could you give us some concrete examples of this work and its results?

A-M. M: I'm sure you will laugh, Marie-Josée, but I want to quote her as an
example, since it shows what kinds of problems Congolese workers have to
tackle if they are to survive. I met Marie-Josée at a market. At the time
Marie-Josée was already working with the union, but she didn't earn enough
to make ends meet so she sat on the ground selling palm oil from a 5-litre
can, using a jam-jar as a measure. I asked her why she didn't try to make a
few improvements by selling her products in a little store and getting some
training? In the end I managed to convince her and today her little shop is
known throughout the town and business is going well. She is registered with
the authorities, sells her products in much better sanitary conditions and
is able to employ a few other people when she is away. We have also
contacted several village communities in Bandundu through a project to fight
a disease that affects manioc, which is the staple food in the Congo.

Here the UNTC's rural development and farming cooperative department has
taken charge, with some promising results. We have managed to persuade the
villagers to work in a cooperative set-up and from the income generated from
the fields managed by the community they have been able to pay for a village
clinic. We are now looking at ways of improving transportation of the
harvested products to other places. Since the roads are very bad, cycles are
the current mode of transport. But if money could be found to pay for oxen
and a cart it would be much more efficient. We also want to set up a canteen
to enable the village communities to purchase basics like salt, sugar and
clothes at more reasonable prices. At the moment, for instance, to get a
beaker of salt they have to give a bag of manioc in return, which is totally
out of proportion.

And how has the women's department got involved in this work?

M-J. L: We have had a women's committee in the UNTC since 1979. It became a
full department in 1981. One of its tasks is to "help women contribute to
the economic development of the country" and that is why we got in touch
with men and women workers from the informal sector. One of our most recent
projects has been to create a cooperative for salting fish in Mbandaka, on
the banks of the river. We initially realised to our horror that the people
there were suffering from malnutrition although they had valuable resources
at hand. Many were unemployed, others were civil servants who were not
receiving their wages and many families had been wiped out owing to
financial problems and the nearby war. Thanks to external funds, we were
able to set up a cooperative. Our donor organisation insisted that men
should be involved in the project, so we formed a group of 18 women and 12
men. The business involves catching and salting the fish on the spot and
then sending them to Kinshasa by boat. The UNTC then takes charge of selling
the fish and the profits are sent on to the workers. We also have a sowing
project with 5 villages, 3 of which are in the Lower Congo. We provide seed
to the farmers who also work together in small groups of 6 or 7 people.
Based on a contract we signed with them, they send us back 1/3 of their
harvest.

To view the unabridged version of this interview, please go to:
http://www.icftu.org/displaydocument.asp?Index=991215404&Language=EN

The ICFTU represents 157 million workers in 225 affiliated organisations in
148 countries and territories. ICFTU is also a member of Global Unions:
http://www.global-unions.org

For more information, please contact the ICFTU Press Department on +32 2 224
0232 or +32 476 62 10 18.

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