By Michael Oche
Leaders of trade unions across the African continent have said it is no longer acceptable the continuous impoverishment of workers of the continent by the political class and from external forces seeking to continue milking and leeching on Africans.
The leaders, who spoke in Abuja at the African Trade Union Alliance meeting, said they must therefore, more than ever before, build greater resilience focusing on the clear objective of creating greater opportunities for delivering equity and fairness to workers and people of Africa.
“Comrades! The number of the working poor is increasing daily in our continent. Our people are dying in great numbers. It is our duty to roll it back by our collective action,” Comrade Joe Ajaero, President of Nigeria Labour Congress, said at the opening of the meeting on Monday.
According to Ajaero, that about 70% of the poorest people in the world reside in Africa despite the continent being the treasure trove of the world is unacceptable.
“That the poverty capital of the world is here in our continent questions sane logic, but its stark realities must spur us to work harder rather than discourage us,” he added.
He said, “One of the other contradictions that we must push back is the contradiction of work that exists in our continent – the more we work, the less we earn and the poorer we become! Every year, real wages drop in most parts of the continent even while our people work harder.
“Poverty statistics for our continent are frightening; more than half of African people live in Poverty, Nigeria and DR Congo represents the two countries in the world with the highest number of poor people; over 400M Africans are poor, and it is increasing; 28 of the world’s poorest countries are in Africa.”
He said the duty of the leaders of the trade unions remains to ensure that the vulnerable are protected and those at work do so within the ambits of the tenets of the Decent work Agenda.
He said, “However, comrades! For us to effectively engage these forces, we must have to build internal capacities within the trade unions and deepen our networks continuously. Alliances like this creates the needed opportunity for us to empower ourselves by exchanging ideas and sharing diverse experiences. These build confluences which increases learning and deepens knowledge, thus strengthens us towards delivering benefits to workers and people of Africa.”
Also speaking, Zingiswa Losi, President of COSATU, said workers confront obstacles in their pursuit of better lives.
She said, “the issues of unemployment inadequate wages, lack of social protection and gender inequalities. These are battles we collectively wage in various context. So the African trade union Alliance as we sit here today, we serves as a powerful vehicle for collective action for fostering a spirit of unity that transcends borders.
“So as we reflect on our shared challenges, we recognise that the fight for fair labour practices for just wages and a safe workplace knows no boundaries. In far too many regions, workers face precarious conditions of work without adequate safeguards or legal protection? The informal sector, which is a lifeline for many, offers little to no security and minimal prospects for advancement.”
