SATUCC/STREETNET
JOINT WORKSHOP
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 What
do trade unions stand for?
Trade unions
stand for defence and promotion of workers’ interests.
Their existence is built on conviction that workers’ interests can only
be assured through their unity. Therefore,
disunity of labour arising from categorisation and separation between formal and
informal in same economies not only denies protection the informal sector
workers deserve, but also weakens the power of labour to fend for their rights
and promotion of their interests. Trade
unions internationally have realised that employment in the informal sector is
there to stay, and in fact it is growing when that of the formal sector is
declining. On realisation of this
fact there is now a deliberate move to put labour in perspective and trade
unions stretching their traditional jurisdiction by organising in the informal
sector.
An
International Symposium that was organised by the Bureau for Workers’ Activity
of the ILO (ACTRAV) in 1999 underscored the point that in considering organising
in the informal sector “the issue was not “formalising” the “informal”
but protecting the unprotected.” It
should be added enhancing power of trade unions.
After
this, at the 90th session of the International Labour Conference held
in Geneva in 2002, a resolution concerning decent work and the informal
economy[1] was adopted “to address
the multitude of workers and enterprises who are often not recognised and
protected under legal and regulatory frameworks, and who are characterised by a
high degree of vulnerability and poverty, and to redress these decent work
deficits” (Clause 1).
1.2
What is informal economy?
Clauses 3 and 4 of the Conclusions concerning decent work and the informal economy answer this question in the following way:
“Although there is no universally accurate or accepted definition, there is a broad understanding that the term “informal economy” accommodates considerable diversity in terms of workers, enterprises and entrepreneurs with identifiable characteristics. They experience specific disadvantages and problems that vary in intensity across national, rural and urban contexts. The term “informal economy” is preferable to “informal sector” because the workers and enterprises in question do not fall within anyone sector of economic activity, but cut across many sectors. However, the term “informal economy” tends to downplay the linkages, grey areas and interdependencies between formal and informal activities. The term “informal economy” refers to all economic activities by workers and economic units that are – in law or in practice – not covered or insufficiently covered by formal arrangements. Their activities are not included in the law, which means that they are operating outside of the formal reach of the law; or they are not covered in practice, which means that – although they are not operating within the formal reach of the law, the law is not applied or not enforced; or the law discourages compliance because it is inappropriate, burdensome, or imposes excessive costs. The ILO’s work needs to take account the conceptual difficulties arising from this considerable diversity.
“Workers in the informal economy include both wage workers and own-account workers. Most own-account workers are as insecure and vulnerable as wage workers and move from one situation to the other. Because they lack protection, rights and representation, these workers often remain trapped in poverty.”
ACTRAV’s International Symposium considered all the following categories of workers as part of the informal economy: self-employed (in own-account activities and family businesses), paid workers in informal enterprises, unpaid workers in family businesses, casual workers without fixed employer, sub-contract workers linked to informal enterprises, sub-contract workers linked to formal enterprises.
1.3 Justification of organising in informal sector
The right
provided under ILO Convention 87 (Freedom of Association and the Right to
Organise) is inherently for all workers irrespective of whether they work in the
formal or informal economy. We are
convinced that it is in this spirit that the UN adopted it as one of the Human
Rights instruments. This right that
aims at assuring workers the strength to benefit from their labour has always
been ensured through a struggle of organised workers of the formal economy.
For historical reasons, those are the organisations that existed and
struggled for its adoption in 1948.
The post
recession of the 1990s has witnessed tremendous growth of the informal economy
and decline of the formal economy in terms of employment, although the former
does not assure its workers such benefits that are known in the formal economy.
According to Sociology of Work Project at Wits University (SWOP) 90% of
workers in the SADC region are outside of the formal economy.
In view of this situation, many workers in the informal economy consider
themselves unemployed and therefore, are looking for an opportunity to avail
itself for employment in the formal economy. In
this regard it can be postulated that the informal economy harbours reserve
labour for the formal economy. Under the
circumstances, therefore, they remain a threat to job security of workers of the
formal economy. Improvement in
working conditions of the informal economy workers would go a long way in
thwarting the threat and alleviation of poverty.
Exercise of
the right to freedom of association provides an entry point for trade union
organisations to organise in informal economy and form alliances with informal
economy organisations for mutual benefits of workers of both sectors.
Where laws allow trade unions could accommodate informal economy workers
into their membership at union or national centre level.
In this way the trade union movement can enhance its influence and
strength offering its experience to informal economy organisations.
Indeed, even where the laws provide an obstacle to organising in the
informal economy, the unions might wage a struggle in pursuit of freedom of
association to organise in the informal economy. Something can be learnt from the successful struggle waged by
The Malawi Union for the Informal Sector in this regard.
Clause 31
of the Conclusions concerning decent work and the informal economy
states: “An important objective
for both employers’ and workers’ organisations is to extend representation
throughout the informal economy. Workers and employers in informal activities may wish to join
existing trade unions and employers’ organisations, or they may want to form
their own. Employers’ and
workers’ organisations play a critical role in either strategy: extending
membership and services to employers and workers in the informal economy, and
encouraging and supporting the creation and development of new member-based,
accessible, transparent, accountable and democratically managed representative
organisations, including bringing them into social dialogue processes.”
It might not
be practicable and necessary to organise the self-employed into the membership
of a union that exist to defend and promote interests of the employed, but it
would be practicable to promote autonomous organisations with whom the unions
would form alliance for solidarity. This
has worked in some countries and Ghana TUC is the case in point.
There is no doubt Ghana TUC is one of the formidable national centres in
the family of ICFTU-Afro and of OATUU. It
has notably survived the waves of post-independence ruthless military and
hostile civilian regimes. One of
the secrets of its strength is its organising approach that encompassed the
informal economy. Ghana TUC
realised that strength of trade unions in particular and their movement in
general depended to a considerable extent on size of membership and a united
front on labour issues.
The Ghana
Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) that included in its membership
self-employed transport operators ranks amongst 5 strongest unions of the 17
affiliates of the TUC. The Ghana
Hairdressers and Beauticians Association got affiliated to the Industrial and
Commercial Workers Union (ICU) enhancing strength of the union through
membership. Self-employed butchers
were organised into Local Government Workers Union (LGWU). Carpenters and charcoal burners were organised into Timber
and Woodworkers Union (TWU); and groups of self-employed rural workers are
organised into the General Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU).
A more detailed account of the success story of Ghana TUC in organising
workers in the informal economy will be presented.
1.4
Situation obtaining in SADC area
In the SADC
area, however, we are not absolutely without own contribution on linkage of
trade unions and the informal sector struggle upon which we can build a way
forward. Thanks to the
supportive endeavours of StreetNet International, some trade unions have
embarked on providing leadership into organising in the informal sector as
typified in the following examples: -
Lesotho:
The National Union of Retail & Allied Workers (NURAW) has provided
organizational infrastructure to a national street vendors’ association Khathang
Tema Baits’okoli which is now affiliated to StreetNet International.
Malawi:
The Malawi Union for the Informal Sector was formed by retrenched
Presidents and General Secretaries of unions affiliates to the Malawi Congress
of Trade Unions (MCTU). This union,
which is affiliated to StreetNet International, waged a battle to be registered
by the authorities, and was finally registered in late 2004.
Mocambique:
The Organizacao dos Trabalhadores de Mocambique (OTM) formed an
association of essentially market vendors known as Associacao dos Operadores
e Trabalhadores do Sector Informal (ASSOTSI) in the Maputo province, with
the intention of developing ASSOTSI to become a national union.
ASSOTSI, which is also affiliated to StreetNet International, has since
also opened up in the Sofala region, and aims to expand to other regions with
the assistance of OTM’s organizational infrastructure.
South
Africa: Since
the enforced liquidation of the Self-Employed Women’s Union (SEWU) there is no
national organization in South Africa of workers in the informal sector.
StreetNet International (whose office is based in Durban, South Africa)
has only a provincially-based affiliate, the Eastern Cape Street Vendors’
Alliance, in South Africa. However, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU)
held a national strategizing workshop in February 2005 on implementing their
resolutions on organizing workers in the informal sector – with technical
support from StreetNet. The South
African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU) has also been assisting StreetNet in its
efforts to create a national alliance of street vendors in South Africa.
Swaziland:
The Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions (SFTU) has been assisting
street vendors in their struggles against eviction from their trading sites from
time to time. SFTU hosted a visit
by SEWU in 2002 to talk to groups of women in Swaziland’s informal sector
about how to organize themselves into unions.
Tanzania:
The Industrial & Commercial Union (ICU) of Tanzania has
started to organize workers in the informal sector.
Zambia:
The Workers Education Association of Zambia (WEAZ) established by the
Zambia Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) assisted informal sector associations in
Zambia to establish the Alliance of Zambian Informal Sector Associations (AZIEA)
which is now affiliated as an associate member of the ZCTU.
AZIEA is also affiliated to StreetNet International.
Zimbabwe:
As a result of a project of the
Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) supported by the Commonwealth Trade
Union Council (CTUC) the Zimbabwean Chamber of Informal Sector Associations (ACIEA)
has been formed. ZCIEA is also
affiliated to StreetNet international.
1.4.1 Role
played by StreetNet International
Of the examples above, the national centres concerned are affiliated to SATUCC, and the following 6 organisations are affiliated to StreetNet International:
- Khathang Tema Baits’okoli (Lesotho)
- Malawi Union for the Informal Sector
- ASSOTSI Mocambique
- Eastern Cape Street Vendors’ Alliance (South Africa)
- AZIEA Zambia
-
ZCIEA Zimbabwe
StreetNet and SATUCC have agreed to convene a joint workshop for all the affiliates of SATUCC (14 altogether) and StreetNet in the SADC region in order to:
(i) promote the organization of workers in the informal sector in the region;
(ii) jointly explore ways of improving the labour standards of all workers in the region irrespective of sectors they are in.
(iii) jointly explore the following challenges for the trade union movement:
(iv)
sensitise trade union leadership to prioritise organising of workers in
the informal sector, and to make human and financial resources available for
implementation of such programmes;
1.4.2 Role
to be played by trade unions
(i) Legal changes: if a country’s laws are an obstacle to organising workers in the informal sector, unions need to lobby for the necessary changes to the laws.
(ii) Constitutional changes: changing trade union constitutions where this is the obstacle to organising informal workers.
(iii) New organising strategies: learning new organising strategies which are more appropriate for workers in the informal sector. This could mean identifying new negotiating partners (e.g. public authorities in the case of market vendors)
(iv) Women leadership: overcoming the traditional gender bias in trade unions in order to have on board a significant number of women in leadership;
(v) Learning from those doing it already: by means of exchange visits or other engagement, unions can learn from the experiences of those who are already organising in the informal sector, avoid some of the mistakes and replicate the more successful strategies without a need to re-invent the wheel. There are many different models operating in different African countries – so sometimes a combination of different models can be applied where no single one fits exactly.
(vi) Organising workers in the informal sector as workers and as equals: because of the greater marginalisation of workers in the informal sector, their often lower levels of formal education, there is often a tendency for formal workers to want to do things on their behalf instead of organising for them to represent themselves and set their own organisational agenda. Workers in the formal sector need to be conscious to rid themselves of this tendency – remembering the struggles they had to wage to represent themselves instead of being represented by others.
(vii) Joint campaigns: it needs to be borne in mind that, for successful joint campaigns, there must be demands set by the workers in the informal sector as well as the demands of the formal workers. If the formal workers set all the demands and the agenda and expect the support of workers in the informal sector when there is nothing in it for them, it might not work.
(viii)
Tackling globalisation:
workers need to understand and confront the negative consequences of
globalisation in a collaborated way (i.e. workers in both sectors should
identify their common ground and organise around that) in order to find ways of
influencing or acting on the way in which they are affected by globalisation.
2.0 THE
WORKSHOP
The scheduled workshop on organising
in informal sector is therefore to provide a forum for leaders of trade unions
in SATUCC to explore the mission of trade unions and the situation of labour in
the region and in the context of realisation of the trade union movement
internationally.
2.1
Objective of the workshop
Ø To discuss ways of dismantling the culture of viewing workers of the informal sector as different from those of the formal sector and agreeing on strategies of a way forward for all workers to enjoy benefits of freedom of association.
Ø To listen and discuss experiences of some trade unions with regard to organising in the informal sector.
Ø
Workshop participants will also discuss ways
for StreetNet and SATUCC to co-operate on a more regular and systematic basis in
the future, with a view to developing a joint programme of activities.
Each of SATUCC’s 14 affiliates and StreetNet International 6 affiliates will be invited to send two participants to the workshop, of whom at least one should be a woman – to ensure good gender balance. SATUCC affiliates who are already involved in organizing activities in the informal sector will be requested to choose participants involved in such activities.