Global: Jobs crisis threatens global wave of social unrest, warns ILO
The International Labour Organisation has warned that a jobs crisis caused by the slowdown in the global economy threatens a wave of widespread social unrest engulfing both rich and poor countries. 'We...
View ArticleZambia: Striking Zambian miners win back jobs and pay hike
Zambian miners ended a two week old strike for better pay in early November, winning back their jobs and a pay hike from a Chinese firm. Union officials said it was a sign that Chinese-owned companies...
View ArticleEgypt: One year on, the labour revolution is stalling
On 30 January, only five days into the revolution, the Egyptian Federation of Independent Trade Unions was born, the first such federation to be established since the union movement was monopolized by...
View ArticleSouth Africa: Miner dead in platinum mine protest
Thousands of protesting miners burnt tyres and torched a police office near Impala Platinum's Rustenburg mine in South Africa on Thursday 16 February as a month-long strike at the world's...
View ArticleEgypt: Calls for general strike see limited appeal
Marking a year since ousted President Hosni Mubarak handed over power to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) on 11 February 2011, university students have called for a general strike to end...
View ArticleSouth Africa: Second death at strike-hit platinum mine
A miner was killed in clashes with police at the strike-hit Impala Platinum mine in South Africa, the second death since violence broke out last week, police said on Monday 20 February. 'One miner was...
View ArticleSouth Africa: Huge national strike turnout expected
Cosatu is expecting a massive turnout for its national strike on Wednesday, and even hopes organisations outside of its network may spontaneously join in - but the union group has been wary of talking...
View ArticleGlobal: Getting ready for a 1 May general strike
This year has already seen the largest-ever strike on record in India, hundreds of thousands marching for democracy in Bahrain, general strikes in Montreal and Spain where students once again occupied...
View ArticleSwaziland: New union presses for democracy
The Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA) will be officially launched 10 - 13 March 2012. The new group is expected to discuss how to step up its campaign for democracy in the kingdom ruled by...
View ArticleSwaziland: Threat of public service strike
All public service unions in Swaziland are threatening strike action for a 4.5 per cent pay increase. This comes at a time when the Swazi Government is trying to reduce its public sector salary bill by...
View ArticleZambia: Strikers threatened with dismissal
Michael Sata has threatened to dismiss all public service workers and replace them with staff from his own political party if they take threatened strike action. The staff have threatened to go on...
View ArticleIvory Coast: Free jailed Ivory Coast union leader Basile Mahan Gahé
Basile Mahan Gahé, general secretary of the Ivory Coast national trade union center Dignité remains imprisoned in the remote town of Boundiali - some 700 kilometers from the capital Abidjan - together...
View ArticleSouth Africa: Cosatu sets in motion the 'mother of all protests'
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) will encourage its two million members to take part in a national protest against the e-tolling system, it said. '[Cosatu] is mobilising its two...
View ArticleGhana: 'Booming economy without jobs'
The Secretary General of the Trade Union Congress-Ghana (TUC), Brother Kofi Asamoah, has regretted that despite the laudable economic achievements made by Ghana in recent times, the fact remains that...
View ArticleNigeria: Labour threatens strikes over fuel subsidy
Labour on May Day threatened to mobilise Nigerians for another street protest if the Federal Government fails to implement the report of the Farouk Lawan-led committee on the probe of the fuel subsidy....
View ArticleSwaziland: Trade unionists beaten
Two trade unionists in Swaziland were arrested and beaten by police at a May Day rally. They were arrested because they were holding a banner with markings of the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland...
View ArticleSierra Leone: Worker riot at African Minerals' mine turns deadly
Two days of rioting over pay by workers from African Minerals' Sierra Leone mine left one woman dead and at least six injured in April, witnesses and medical staff said. African Minerals made its first...
View ArticleSouth Africa: Jobless youth time bomb
A young person is three times more likely to be unemployed than an adult globally and if the disparity is not dealt with urgently economic protest will worsen. The International Labour Organisation...
View ArticleAlgeria: Government repression provokes union hunger strike
The International Trade Union Confederation is demanding that the Algerian authorities stop repression of the country’s emerging independent trade union movement. A wave of harassment of members of the...
View ArticleSouth Africa: UPM statement on the Youth Wage Subsidy
'The Unemployed People’s Movement rejects the Youth Wage Subsidy as a solution to the unemployment crisis that is leaving millions of young people without a future. We note that there has been a...
View ArticleMalawi: Uranium workers strike
Employees at Kayerekera Uranium Mine in Karonga have gone on strike demanding a 40 per cent salary increase in the wake of the recent devaluation of the Malawi currency, the kwacha last week....
View ArticleSwaziland: Government wants to veto union visits
A government minister has warned workers in the kingdom that they cannot invite trade unionists from overseas to Swaziland without permission. Lufto Dlamini, Minister of Labour and Social Security,...
View ArticleSouth Africa: Battle lines drawn as municipal wage negotiations begin
Wage talks between the South African Municipal Workers' Union and the South African Local Government Association have begun in Boksburg. Samwu and the Independent Municipal and Allied Trade Union, have...
View ArticleSouth Africa: Strike threat as state holds civil servants in deadlock
Unions have given the government 24 hours to agree to terms to avoid a wage dispute that would throw the public service sector into disarray. Public sector unions have united in rejecting the...
View ArticleGlobal: 90 million unskilled workers will be unneeded by employers globally...
Tens of millions of people worldwide will be condemned to long-term joblessness unless global leaders make significant changes to address unemployment and worker training, according to a new study....
View ArticleSouth Africa: State workers demand 'bare necessities'
The government is insensitive to the needs of the poor and does not understand the economic plight faced by many state employees. This is the sentiment of many public sector workers as the state and...
View ArticleGlobal: Growing gaps in decent work for young people
Across regions, young people are disproportionately affected by unemployment, underemployment, vulnerable employment and working poverty, says this article from the UN Focal Point on Youth, which looks...
View ArticleSwaziland: Government fails to jail strike leaders
The Industrial Court in Swaziland has refused to allow the government to jail the entire executive of the teachers’ union for leading a pay strike. The Swazi Government had previously gained an order...
View ArticleEgypt: New unions face uncertain future
The independent trade unions that have sprung up across Egypt over the last 17 months face an uncertain future, caught between Islamists and the military and operating under labour laws that have not...
View ArticleMauritania: Rights group denounces repression of copper mine workers
The Forum of National Human Rights Organisations (FONADH), an umbrella organisation of about 15 non-governmental organisations, has strongly condemned the repression of a recent peaceful demonstration...
View ArticleSwaziland: Public sector strike grows
Nurses are to join teachers and civil servants in the growing public sector strike in Swaziland. They will strike from 18 July 2012 in pursuit of a 4.5 per cent salary increase. Teachers have been on...
View ArticleZambia: New minimum wage pits employers against government
From the reaction of various stakeholders, ranging from the Zambia Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) to the Zambia Federation of Employers and ordinary citizens (through spoof letters stating new...
View ArticleEgypt: One worker killed, three injured during protest
The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) has expressed great concern over an attack on workers of the Samoli Spinning and Weaving Company during protests held on 21 July 2012. Following the...
View ArticleSouth Africa: Lonmin strikers accept pay offer
Rock drillers at Lonmin's Marikana mine have accepted a 22% overall pay increase to end more than five weeks of crippling and bloody strikes. This increases their salaries to just over R11 000. Other...
View ArticleEgypt: Partial transport and education strikes
Egypt saw a fresh wave of strikes on Sunday as transport and education sector employees downed tools to push for financial and administrative reform. In separate bouts of industrial action, workers at...
View ArticleSouth Africa: Battle for Cosatu begins
For the first time in more than 10 years, Cosatu goes to its national congress – starting on Monday at Gallagher Estate in Midrand – with the prospect of having the positions of two of its most senior...
View ArticleSouth Africa: SA church council steps in at Marikana
South Africa’s beleaguered government continues its security crackdown in Marikana, with the South African National Defence Force announcing that it deployed 1,000 soldiers to the restive mining town...
View ArticleSouth Africa: Miners complain of 'living hell'
The community located near the Lonmin-owned platinum mine which has been the scene of a bitter strike, wages a daily battle with air and noise pollution, intense crime and appalling living conditions....
View ArticleSouth Africa: Cosatu calls for strike review
Cosatu wants to review its strike processes to ensure workers are happy with the outcomes, and that associated violence and intimidation are reduced. 'It is worrying...that only half of the Cosatu...
View ArticleSouth Africa: Truck drivers on strike
South Africa truck drivers and other transport workers launched a strike for higher wages Tuesday, a union spokesman said, amid concerns that the standstill could cause fuel shortages. Truckers were...
View ArticleSouth Africa: Miners continue strike despite threats
Workers at several Anglo Platinum mines have decided to continue their strike, despite management threats to dismiss all those who didn't show up to work by Monday evening. The strikers, who hope to...
View ArticleSouth Africa: Employment equity shows little progress
Proposed changes to the Employment Equity Act will severely penalise companies that lag behind on transformation if they come into effect, including hefty fines for noncompliance. But companies still...
View ArticleCameroon: Start of cocoa season in Cameroon raises pay concerns
The final quarter of the year is the main time of harvest and profit for workers in the cocoa industry, which employs full villages in southwestern Cameroon. But many cite low pay, with women, who are...
View ArticleSouth Africa: Farlam commission launches into Marikana shooting
The commission's in loco inspection, set up to investigate the August shooting at Marikana, has revealed that the bodies of miners were not limited to a specific area as video footage led many to...
View ArticleSouth Africa: Anglo American to face SA silicosis hearing
Anglo American will face a hearing next year to determine if it's liable for miners who contracted silicosis while working in its gold shafts. Anglo American no longer has gold assets in South Africa,...
View ArticleSouth Africa: Police arrest dozens of miners
South African police have arrested 90 people after a protest at a mine turned violen, officials say. The miners were from the Gold Fields KDC Kloof mine in Westonaria, about 45km west of Johannesburg....
View ArticleSouth Africa: Police disperse striking miners
Police in South Africa say they have fired rubber bullets, teargas and stun grenades in clashes with hundreds of striking Anglo American platinum mine workers who barricaded roads outside Johannesburg....
View ArticleSouth Africa: Mine strikes not over
As Gold Fields announced its operations resumed, another operator said it was hit by a strike, suggesting labour unrest in the mines is far from over. Gold Fields said the reinstatement of 8,500...
View ArticleSouth Africa: De Doorns strike sparks call for nationwide agricultural stay-away
With South Africa still reeling from mining sector strikes in Marikana, Cosatu has called for nationwide stay-way in the agriculture sector in support of farmworkers in De Doorns who today entered...
View ArticleZimbabwe: Chinese exploiting Zim labour, says report
Zimbabweans providing cheap labour in the fast-growing Chinese mines bear the brunt of extremely harsh conditions and low wages, a Johannesburg-based advocacy group, Southern Africa Resource Watch...
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