Africa and Middle East: Unions organise challenging section of working populace

On 23-24 October, 22 trade unionists, including 12 women workers, from BWI affiliates in Southern and East Africa met for a two-day, face-to-face Global Organisers’ Workshop. The workshop sought to provide an opportunity for the participants to share their organising experiences, and was an occasion for organisers to upgrade their skills in organising  a challenging section of the working population, such as those who have non-standard employment contracts and generally considered as “hard-to-organise” workers. 

The trade unionists agreed that there is a strong need to develop new "power resources” based on collaboration and coalition work. Various sources of power (structural, associational, institutional, and societal) and associated structures (within respective organisations and employers’ associations) were discussed as possible ways to intensify campaigns on climate justice, gender equality, informal sector issues, among many others. 

IFWEA facilitator Saliem Patel helped in capacitating the participants on how to include climate change, gender equality, and youth issues in the standard collective bargaining agreement processes. The unionists were also educated on how to collect, analyse, and maintain data digitally to establish wage and inflation trends which can be used during wage increase negotiations. “Approaching negotiations without conducting thorough research is no longer acceptable. Unions must understand and analyse their power accordingly to achieve decent and safe work,” NUM National Construction Coordinator Tebatso Mokoena said. 

The BWI affiliates that participated in the training are the CMWEU from Mauritius, the CLAWUZ, GAPWUZ and ZCATWU from Zimbabwe, the BCAWU and NUM from South Africa, the MANWU from Namibia and the NUBEGW from Zambia. They were joined by the KUPRIPUPA and KBCTFIEU from Kenya, and the TAMICO and TUICO from Tanzania.