Alliances needed between municipal workers and vendors
Local government and
municipal workers and street vendor association representatives met to
discuss their common work problems and areas of possible alliance at a
one-day workshop in Kenya hosted by Public Services International (PSI) on
21st September 2003.
Women representatives
from PSI-affiliated public and commercial trade unions in Benin, Senegal,
Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda met with women representing
street vendor organisations in Benin, Guinea, South Africa, Kenya, Zambia
and Uganda that are either affiliated to or associated with StreetNet.
Participants identified
many common work problems as women. These included low incomes, long
hours, not enough time to participate in union meetings, nepotism in
allocation of resources, low or (no) representation in collective
bargaining, discrimination, victimisation, sexual and political
harassment, lack of health care and HIV/AIDs.
The
workshop saw potential conflict between street vendors and municipal
workers in situations where municipal workers (in their capacity as
enforcement officers) chase away street and market vendors from their
places of work, confiscate vendors’ goods and collect levies. Further
areas of conflict arise when municipal government does not accept clear
responsibility for cleansing/hygiene and does not do enough to fight crime
on the streets.
It
was agreed that strategies to resolve conflicts require women workers in
the formal and informal economy to adopt a united front. It was proposed
that joint approaches by municipal workers’ unions and street and
vendors’ organisations be made to national governments on local
government policy. Joint publicity campaigns about municipal services were
needed that involved consumers as well to highlight the need for adequate
sanitation and hygiene in the markets. Negotiations between union leaders
and leaders of informal economy organisations, and local governments
should discuss urban planning issues and the allocation of revenues in
local government budgets and find solutions to the poor regulation of
street trade and informal markets.
Examples from Tanzania and Guinea were shared where formal economy unions have started production co-operatives and are organising street and market traders around health and safety, micro-credit and hygiene. In Ghana, unions have helped to resolve the problems experienced between street and market vendors and in negotiating on regulation.
Participants agreed to develop areas of alliance in their coun- tries and resolved to find ways to tackle their common problems through a unified approach.
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