Unions in Ethiopia

The trade unions in Ethiopia currently have a total of around 300,000 members. Over 203,000 of these are members of the Confederation of Ethiopian Trade Unions .

Ethiopia has also ratified several conventions of the International Labor Organization, including Convention 29 of 1930 on Forced Labor (in 2003), Convention 87 of 1948 on Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize (1963), Convention 98 of 1949 on the right to organize and the right to collective bargaining (1963), Convention 100 of 1951 on equal pay (1999), Convention 105 of 1957 on the abolition of forced labor (1999), Convention 111 of 1958 on discrimination in employment and occupation (1966 ), Convention 138 of 1973 on Minimum Age (1999) and Convention 182 of 1999 on Prohibition and Immediate Action to Eliminate the Worst Forms of Child Labor (2003).

history

Abyssinian Empire

An organized labor movement came to Ethiopia late. This was partly due to the small size of the industrial workforce (an estimated 15,583 in 1957), but mostly because the Ethiopian government viewed any form of organized protest as a form of insurrection.

Although the Constitution of the Ethiopian Empire of 1955 guaranteed associations the right to form workers' organizations, the Ethiopian government did not issue the Employment Relationship Decree that allowed trade unions until 1962 . In April 1963, the imperial authorities recognized the Confederation of Ethiopian Labor Unions , which represented 22 industrial labor groups. As of 1973, this union had 167 member organizations with around 80,000 members, which only considered and represented about 30 percent of all workers. The Confederation of Ethiopian Labor Unions not only withdrew its membership from the railroad workers, but also shut down workers at the Addis Ababa Fiber Mills, Indo-Ethiopian Textiles, Wonji Sugar Plantation, Ethiopian Airlines, and General Ethiopian Transport (also known as the Anbassa Bus company).

The CELU never developed into a national association of trade unions. Instead it remained an association of workers' groups organized at the local level. The lack of a national constitution, coupled with other problems such as corruption, embezzlement, electoral fraud, ethnic and regional discrimination, and inadequate finances prevented the CELU from overcoming the status quo in the industrial sector. Both government officials and management continued to treat unions with contempt. The government has been slow in revising archaic labor laws such as those related to child labor and the minimum age for workers. Union leaders have been harassed and when the unions threatened to strike, they have been locked out . CELU organized general strikes in 1964 and 1970, but each time failed to attract the support it needed. After 1972, the CELU became increasingly militant as drought and famine resulted in the deaths of 200,000. The government responded by using armed forces to crush workers' protests, strikes and demonstrations. This militancy reached its climax with the successful general strike from March 7th to 11th, which not only led to an increase in pay and pensions, but also played an important role in the Ethiopian revolution . It helped discredit the Emperor Haile Selassie's regime .

Communist Ethiopia

Although many members of the CELU supported the overthrow of the emperor Haile Selassie, the CELU itself came to alliance with the radical intelligentsia in order to persuade the newly established Provisional Military Administrative Council ( DERGUE ) to share power. The CELU also called for shop floor control over production. Despite multiple strikes in and around Addis Ababa , which sometimes ended in bloody clashes, the Derg temporarily closed the headquarters of the CELU on May 19, 1975 because the union had to be reorganized. The military authorities also demanded that workers should choose their future leaders according to the goals and aspirations of Ethiopian socialism. This mandate ostensibly did not take back traditional workers' rights , such as the right to organize freely, to strike and to bargain collectively on wages and working conditions. Instead, the intention was to control the political activities of the CELU leadership. As expected, the CELU rejected these actions and continued the demands for democratic change and civil rights. On January 8, 1977, the DERG replaced the CELU, which had already been abolished in December 1975, by the All Ethiopian Union (AETU). The AETU had 1,341 local chapters known as workers' associations, with a total membership of 287,000, twice the size of the CELU. The government claimed that the purpose of the AETU was to educate workers about the need to do their part in national development by increasing productivity and building socialism.

In 1978 the Derg replaced the Executive Committee after it had heated their spirits through political sabotage, abuse of office and the inability to abide by the rules of democratic centralism. Another restructuring of the AETU occurred in 1982 when Addis Ababa introduced the union organization proclamation. An uncompromising Marxist-Leninist document by proclaiming the need for workers to fulfill their historical responsibility for building the national economy by using carefully the instruments of production of their products and by promoting production and appropriate distribution of goods and services, to empower. A series of meetings and elections culminated in a national congress in June 1982 at which the government replaced the leadership of the AETU.

In 1983/84 the AETU claimed to have a membership of 313,434. The organization comprised nine industrial groups, the largest of which was manufacturing, which in 1982/83 had a share of 29.2 percent of the membership, followed by agriculture , forestry and fishing with 26.6 percent and 15.1 percent with services , Transportation at 8.1 percent, construction at 8.0 percent, trading at 6.2 percent, utilities at 3.7 percent, finance at 2.4 percent, and mining at 0.7 percent. A total of 35.6 percent of the members lived in the capital Addis Ababa and the other 18.0 percent in Sheva . The provinces of Eritrea and Tigray accounted for no more than 7.5 percent of the total membership. In the late 1980s the AETU did not make it, in 1970 the activist had won his reputation again in the previous years. This political calm likely indicated that the government was successfully co-opting with the unions. In 1986 the government changed the name of the AETU to the Ethiopian Union (ETU).

Current development

In 2000, a private company completely dissolved its labor union after a disagreement between management and workers. A total of 586 workers were laid off from the company, including union leaders. The Ethiopian government tried to put the dispute into perspective, but the employer refused to cooperate; in this case the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs was expected to deal with the matter a year later.

In 2008, the top management of the state-owned Bole Printing company disagreed with their union on issues of worker compensation and lawless termination. In December of the same year a workers' council was established, consisting of ministers of state, representatives and workers, from the Confederation of Ethiopian Trade Unions and the management of the Bole Printing company; this board agreed that both sides were at fault and decided that the illegal dismissals should end. The employees, however, were required to go back to their duties.

See also

• Ethiopia economy
• Political system of Ethiopia

Individual evidence

1. ↑ "Education International Barometer of Human & Trade Union Rights in Education" ( Memento of the original from October 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (last accessed on May 14, 2008)  
2. ↑ " Annual Survey of violations of trade union rights: Ethiopia" ( Memento of the original from October 12, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , International Trade Union Confederation website (last accessed May 14, 2008) 
3. ^ Edmond J. Keller, Revolutionary Ethiopia: From Empire to People's Republic (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991), 147.
4. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Wubne, Mulatu. "Labor Unions". A Country Study: Ethiopia (Thomas P. Ofcansky and LaVerle Berry, editors). Library of Congress Federal Research Division (1991). [1] .
5. ^ Bahru Zewde, A History of Modern Ethiopia , second edition (London: James Currey, 2001), p. 200
6. ^ Keller, Revolutionary Ethiopia , 148.
7. ^ Keller, Revolutionary Ethiopia , 177.
8. ^ Keller, Revolutionary Ethiopia , pp. 177f.
9. ^ Keller, Revolutionary Ethiopia , 218.
10. ↑ "Ethiopia: Country Reports on Human Rights Practices" ( Memento of the original dated November 30, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, US State Department (last accessed July 9, 2009) 
11. ↑ "2008 Human Rights Reports: Ethiopia" , Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, US State Department (last accessed July 8, 2009)