Two regional trade union organisations, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions-Africa Regional Organisation (ICFTU-AFRO) and Democratic Organisation of African Workers Trade Unions (DOAWTU) that merged into Independent National Trade Union Centres within the African region (ITUC-AFRICA) on Wednesday November 28, 2007 met in Accra-Ghana.
They will forever relish the memory of the desire to champion the cause of workers in Africa in the face of the problems being engendered by global capital.
The high point of the labour leaders’ discussions in the four days unification conference was the need to overcome the problem of proliferation of labour unions in Africa and translate regional unity into unity at national level stressing that the ITUC-Africa would support the strengthening of national labour centres, focusing on pillars of organisation, internal democracy, workers’ control and accountability as well as social mobilisation.
Kwasi Adu-Amankwah, elected General Secretary of ITUC-Africa, in his acceptance speech, said "As we take our first step forward into the future as a new regional organisation, we certainly must reflect on the sorry situation of Africa today and the numerous challenges that face its workers and the people at large
"In some respect, Africa has archived distinction as a continent of extremes. It has also been established that Africa is the richest continent in terms of natural resources and yet it is also the one with proportionately the largest number of poor people, including working poor"
To Adu-Amankwah, the Congress of ITUC-Africa with the mandate of trade union unity for sustainable development has all opportunities to make changes in the fortunes of the workers in Africa if the workers can speak with one voice and rise up to their historic responsibilities on the continent
He said "At the beginning of the congress, we were reminded that half of the population of Africa lives on less than one US dollar a day and that this proportion is higher than what was in place 20 years ago.
"Our African story is familiar to most of us and also a similar one, varying largely in terms of range and degree with no exception. It is persistent poverty, hunger and malnutrition, unemployment, suffocating debt burden, child labour, conflict, bad governance and corruption, weak social dialogue or its complete absence"
To ensure the full implementation of the mandate of ITUC-Africa, Adu-Amankwah said,"The demand has been made for us to go beyond sloganeering and actually promote gender mainstreaming and full youth participation in the structures and activities of ITUC-Africa. The concern for decent work and social protection for all workers in Africa, including those in the informal economy are to be vigorously pursued"
In the same vein, President of Ghana, John Kufuor, reminded the labour leaders at the merging of ICFTU-AFRO and DOAWTU into ITUC-Africa that, "The leadership of organised labour on the continent must help to accelerate the pace of economic development, to improve the lives of the citizenry and help achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on schedule.
"Africa will have to forge strategic partnership among member nations on the continent, and between them and others outside the continent to benefit from technology transfer to attract more investment projects and to enhance accessibility to global markets".
Kufuor who was represented by Mrs. Chinery Hessey, chief labour adviser to the president, added "It is significant that the golden jubilee anniversary of her independence, Ghana is once again privileged to witness the birth of yet another continental organisation as 50 years ago, the country hosted the founding congress of the dissolved ICFTU-AFRO here in Accra-Ghana".
He pointed out that the grand debate of the 9th summit of the African Union, which met in Accra in July 2007 resolved to pursue the economic gains policies that would ensure the establishment of a continental union government in Africa.
In his comments, Dan Cunniah, director, International Labour Organisation, Ghana, said: "Given the challenges facing the Africa continent, trade union unity has become a must. And with its decent work agenda, the ILO is addressing the reality that women and men everywhere need to earn a living for themselves and theirs families if they are to begin to enjoy freedom in its widest sense."
He pointed out that in a relatively short time the decent work concept has led to a regional, as well as an international consensus, among governments, trade unions, employers’ organisation and civil society at large.
Cunniah said, "The big challenge for the trade movement in Africa where more than 80 percent of the workforce survive with meaningless income derived from low added value activities must be vigorously pursued by the ITUC-Africa"
To Guy Ryder, General Secretary, International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) violence, physical intimidation and harassment of women workers is a systematic problem in many workplaces around the world, and too many governments and employers ignore the problem
He said, "A large proportion of the world’s population cannot enjoy the potential benefits of globalization. Moreover, the huge informal sector excludes workers from basic social security safety nets and leaves them in total insecurity. The ITUC-Africa must ensure the respect for the fundamental trade union rights of workers and protection from discrimination is central to dealing effectively with this problem in Africa".
The ITUC-Africa must point to the appalling situation of millions of women forced into the sex trade around the world, emphasising that they must ensure that globalisation progresses in an inclusive way that benefits not only the already developed countries and a few emerging economies, but in a real way delivers economic and social progress to over one hundred developing countries still in desperate need of development, and without which they won’t be able to lift their people out of poverty
Noting that that job creation challenge comes on top of the pressure of a continuing large scale shift out of agriculture and rural areas towards cities, pushed by poverty and pulled by the hope of a better job," John Odah, General Secretary, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) said. "The global economy is not delivering enough decent jobs that people need. Despite the purported many benefits of globalization, we see again and again how the dignity of work has been devalued. Economic optimism for some is matched with profound social pessimism for many. This is why we are in crusade that ITUC-Africa must ensure that place policies that replace jobless growth with quality, ‘job-rich’ growth are put in place."
Odah noted that the emergence of ITUC-Africa was the most recent example of growing support for the Africa labour leaders’ full and productive employment and decent work as a central objective of relevant national and international policies and spelling out the central role of decent work in development strategies and poverty reduction in Africa
To Adrien Akouete, out gone Secretary General, DOAWTU, since it creation on the 26th February, 1993, the organisation set world precisely work objectives for itself, re-enforcement of the defence of trade union and democratic freedom in the defence of the interest workers trade unions not forgetting the struggle for the emancipation of and promotion of the Afroman.
These concerns can be easily understood in the light of the past events especially when one remember that not long ago, many trade unions in Africa were still under heels of single party regime. That was the time four centers merged into one single national confederation without any real power except that of reapplication the applications of government decisions.
Considering the inability of these organisations to defend the interest of workers, some associations started struggling and claiming their independence vis-a vis the political parties and the Pan African Union of Christian Workers (PAUCW) transformed itself into a foundation known as Pan-African Foundation For Economic-Socio and Cultural Development (FOPADEC). This foundation upon the return of political plurality of the continent, gave way to DOAWTU
To ascertain whether an institution really deserves its name, one has to first of all find out if it has been able to make efforts necessary for adapting to the necessity of its time. With respect to DOAWTU, the following actions confirmed that impressions;
With respect to the promotion of Africa trade unions activities, institutional support, combating poverty, the results obtained are sufficiently resilient.
Further more, having refused to fall into the trade unionism boutique, but rather open to the outside world, they also formed parts of the national delegations that attend the annual conferences of the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
Focused on the building of an advanced guard trade unionism, DOAWTU sought for resources for its activities, has entire adequate infrastructure to be the nerve centre of a powerful organisation, a soul and a solid body in the trade union movement on the African continent.
In the same vein, Andrew Kailembo, out gone General Secretary, ICFTU-AFRO pointed out that the labour centre while in existence worked with determination to campaign for a more socially just world, the cancellation of African debts and the inclusion of clauses on the eight core labour standards in the World Bank contracts.
He said, "We have strengthened our technical capacity to deal with critical social and economic policy matters of African workers through various capacity building projects supported by various partners. The outcomes have been encouraging and within the World Bank and IMF, our voice is being heard".
Kailembo pointed out that prior to and on the founding of the ITUC-Africa, the ICFTU-AFRO and DOAWTU re-affirmed their resolve to forge unity in the hope of building the African workers’ power and capacity to respond to the problems engendered by the corporate-led globalisation process.
He said "In this forward march, the emergence of ITUC-Africa on 27th November 2007 is a milestone in fulfilling the pledge that the two regional trade union organisations, ICFTU-AFRO and DOAWTU, made in Vienna, Austria during the founding Congress of the ITUC.
He maintained that the ITUC-Africa recognises the urgent need to transform social, economic and political structures and relations, which stand as obstacles to that vision.
"It assumes the task of combating poverty, hunger, exploitation, oppression, and inequality through regional and international solidarity actions for the attainment of just and equitable patterns of trade and wealth sharing required by the conditions of the globalised economy, and for its democratic governance in the interests of labour, which its holds superior to those of capital", he said.
He, however, said that the ITUC-Africa shall function in a robust manner as a countervailing force in the global economy, committed to eradicating the imbalances in the global trade order and the unfair geo-liberal trade policies, especially the heavy agricultural subsidies and the various impediments to market access for agricultural products.
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