Africa
In Africa, the Solidarity Center seeks to empower the labor movement and promote worker rights by organizing workers and strengthening their voice at the bargaining table; protecting their rights on the job and ending the scourge of child labor, forced labor and human trafficking. Although many countries in sub-Saharan Africa are seeing tremendous economic growth through oil and mineral exports, the emergence of a textile sector and expanding foreign investment, workers and their families are not sharing in the prosperity. Instead, more than 80 percent of the world’s poorest countries are located in Africa, and of the people living below the poverty level in 2013, more than half were in Africa. Elsewhere, poverty ranges between 4 percent and 14 percent. Approximately one in three people living in sub-Saharan Africa are undernourished. With few formal, full-time jobs available, increasing numbers of workers are turning to the informal economy to support their families. Trade unions across the continent are reaching out to street vendors, domestic workers, agricultural employees and others in the informal economy to provide a collective voice for achieving social benefits, higher wages and job stability. Their efforts recognize that sustainable development and inclusive economic growth are only possible when gender inequity, a key human rights component, is integrated throughout the process. In 2000, the United States passed the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which gives eligible sub-Saharan countries duty-free access to the U.S. market for a variety of products. To qualify, countries must take measures that promote good governance and a fair economic system. These include fundamental labor rights; the rule of law and political pluralism; a system to combat corruption; and economic policies that reduce poverty, increase access to health care and education and expand physical infrastructure. Swaziland lost eligibility for benefits under the AGOA in 2014 because the Swazi government had not demonstrated progress on the protection of internationally recognized worker rights, in particular, protecting freedom of association and the right to form unions. Since AGOA has been in effect, it has increased exports from sub-Saharan Africa but has not spurred broader development or fostered a robust and equitable economic system. AGOA was reauthorized in September 2015.

Media Contact

Kate Conradt
Communications Director
(+1) 202-974 -8369

 

ITUC Africa Director Forcibly Detained in Zimbabwe

Kwasi Adu Amankwah, general secretary of the African Regional Organization of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC-Africa), was forcibly taken from his hotel at 2 a.m. today in Harare, Zimbabwe, where he had just arrived. Amankwah was set to meet with...

Kenya, Kuwait Unions Sign Migrant Workers’ Agreement

The Central Organization of Trade Unions-Kenya (COTU-K) and the Kuwait Trade Union Federation (KTUF) signed a cooperative agreement last week in Kuwait City, formalizing the federations’ effort to jointly address issues affecting workers who migrate from Kenya to...

South Africa’s Workers Fight Job Losses

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) launched a general strike across eight provinces Wednesday as a warning to South Africa’s governing party, the African National Congress (ANC), to address rampant job losses and unemployment across the public and...
Continued Crackdown on Zimbabwe’s Workers

Continued Crackdown on Zimbabwe’s Workers

In Zimbabwe, a government crackdown continues this week on citizens who last month protested a 150 percent fuel price hike. Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) Secretary General Japhet Moyo and President Peter Mutasa were released from police custody yesterday on...

Nigerian Workers Demand Long-Promised Wage Increase

Nigerian Workers Demand Long-Promised Wage Increase

The Nigeria Labor Congress (NLC) is encouraging workers to gather at a National Assembly public hearing this week to implore lawmakers to implement a new minimum wage bill affecting 11 million workers, and reject a proposed two-tier minimum wage bill that will rob...

Continued Crackdown on Zimbabwe’s Workers

Crackdown on Zimbabwe’s Workers Escalates

A government crackdown on citizens who last week protested a 150 percent fuel price hike escalated Monday with the arrest of Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) Secretary General Japhet Moyo, charged with subversion for “mobilizing the nation to participate in...

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