Strengthening union organizing as Ethiopia industrializes12 August, 2018With more industrial parks being opened in Ethiopia as part of government’s industrialization strategies, unions are taking the opportunity to recruit, organize and build their capacity for effective collective bargaining.
BRICS unions discuss decent work and sustainable development31 July, 2018The BRICS Trade Union Forum (BTUF), an alliance of union federations from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, is demanding a developmental and democratic model as an alternative to the dominant global financial institutions, especially the IMF and the World Bank.
South Africa: Mine responsibly and improve working conditions, recommends report30 July, 2018If public statements on working conditions by mining companies are to be believed, the demands by trade unions on health and safety, workers’ rights, and the ending of unethical labour practices would have been met.
South Africa: union in historic court victory against precarious work26 July, 2018The Constitutional Court, the highest court in South Africa, has ruled that an employer cannot employ a worker for more than three months without a permanent contract.
Benin unions agree to cooperate20 July, 2018Defending the right to strike, signing up more members, promoting participatory democracy, forming a women’s committee, and building solidarity among the unions are some of the commitments agreed upon at a recent meeting in Cotonou, Benin.
South Africa: Six workers die in underground fire at copper mine18 July, 2018With six mineworkers killed and 48 injured in an underground fire at Palabora Copper Mine in the Limpopo Province caused by a burning conveyor belt, increasingly South African mines are becoming death-traps for mine workers.
South Africa: Footwear strike for a living wage enters second week17 July, 2018Thousands of workers in the footwear sector are on strike for a second week demanding a wage increase of 9.5 per cent while the employers are offering 6.25 per cent.
Zambia: Mining union on recruitment blitz12 July, 2018“I will be smiling all the way to Kitwe,” says Brenda Mufika, the Copperbelt Regional Coordinator, of the Mine Workers Union of Zambia (MUZ), after signing a recognition agreement with Smech Engineering Services in the Sinazongwe District of the Southern Province of Zambia on 12 July.
South Africa: Union demands justice for woman worker murdered at electricity sub-station28 June, 2018In May last year, power utility Eskom worker, 29-year-old Thembisile Yende, was murdered whilst at work at an electricity sub-station in Ekurhuleni near Johannesburg. On 28 June, the court said that the director of public prosecutions has provisionally withdrawn the charges against her alleged killer, David Ngwenya, a technician at Eskom.
Kenya: Union success in growing garment and textile sector22 June, 2018Global brands are increasingly eyeing Kenya to source their apparel as the garment and textile sector rebounds after many years of decline. The Tailors and Textile Workers Union is organizing workers and winning good agreements in this growing industry.
