29 June, 2015East African unions have joined together to build stronger trade unions, fight against precarious work and advocate for better occupational health and safety in the region. On 5 June, the IndustriALL East Africa union building project, funded by Danish central organization LO-FTF, was launched in Tanzania.
The project aims to make trade unions in the manufacturing and mining industries in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda stronger through national and international cooperation. Stronger unions can better defend their members, improving working conditions and health and safety at the workplace.
A growing number of workers are left with no choice but to accept temporary, precarious and dangerous jobs in order to make ends meet and provide an income for their families. Precarious jobs are an enormous threat for workers, not only at the social and economic level - it also has negative impacts on the communities and on the economy at large.
IndustriALL Global Union affiliates in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda call on their governments, employers, workers and all other stakeholders to cooperate with trade unions in dealing with the explosion in precarious work, as well as to work towards minimizing diseases and accidents in the workplace. This should be done through legislation and collective bargaining.
The specific objectives of the East African union building project include:
· Organizing and recruiting workers into trade unions, after which the employers also need to recognize the unions
· Eliminating precarious work and short term contracts
· Reducing health and safety related risks and incidences at work
The overriding goal is to ensure that IndustriALL affiliates in the three countries gain power, allowing them to become a strong counterforce and dialogue partner to the companies. When workers find ways to have better lives and more decent work, the three countries, as well as the entire East African region, will be better off.
Catherine Aneno, IndustriALL project coordinator, says:
We support unions gaining more power in East Africa. Within the next four-year period, we want to see an increased membership in the region, have less precarious work as well as safer and healthier jobs.
Let us organize, agitate and educate our members.