The Director of the Bureau for Workers Activities (ACTRA) of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), Maria Helena André, has called for a greater solidarity towards building back better the emerging changing world of work ocassioned by the COVID-19 pandemic and other issues.
André, in her presentation during a sub-regional seminar on ‘Trade unions in transitions in West Africa;, organised by the Organisation of Trade Unions of West Africa (OTUWA), said the world today is in transition, hence the need for union leaders to interrogate the uncertain and unpredictable normal.
According to her, “Transitions from young to old age, transitions form informal to formal economy, transitions from analogue to a digital word, transitions regarding environmental considerations, transitions from normal working situation to lockdowns and tele-working, back to what appeared to some resemblance of normal times then back to travel restrictions in much of the world.
“We need strong and representative trade unions to “build forward better” from this crisis. I think it is safe to say that this would reflect the general opinion of all participants present at this webinar today.
“It requires understanding of the multitude of challenges posed by an ever-changing world of work and this requires constant dialogue, both within the labour movement and beyond.
“We need to understand the implication of the transitions to our members in their diversity. We need to know the significance of these transitions to organisational operations of trade unions.
“We may also wish to examine ourselves what needs to change in order for this transition to be appropriate, meaningful and fit for purpose and in line with our trade union mandate, values, principles and actions to improve workers’ life all around the world.”
Speaking earlier, the president of OTUWA, Comrade Mademba Sock, lamented that workers in the subregion are faced with several challenges ranging from refusal to belong to unions, criminalisation of strikes and host of others.
Comrade Sock, who was represented by the vice president, Comrade Sophie Kourouma, said “This is a subregion where unionisation is at 10 per cent of the workforce, where informal economic activities holds sway at up to 90 per cent of the workforce in some of the 15 countries of ECOWAS.
“This is a subregion where some governments or their key spokespersons see workers going on strike in water corporation agencies (for example) as a national security problem that needs to be addressed as a security problem, and other such abnormalities affecting our subregion.”