National organization(s) | GWC |
---|---|
Regulatory authority | Ministry of Trade, Industry, Regional Integration and Employment |
Primary legislation | Labour Act 2007 |
International Labour Organization | |
The Gambia is a member of the ILO | |
Convention ratification | |
Freedom of Association | 4 September 2000 |
Right to Organise | 4 September 2000 |
Trade unions in The Gambia protect workers' rights, lobby the government and employers, and organise industrial action. The first trade union in The Gambia was founded in 1929, and the country had general strikes in 1929 and 1961. The Gambia joined the International Labour Organization in 1995. The Gambian Workers' Confederation is affiliated to the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).
History
Origins
Traditionally, Gambian mansolu (Mandinka elders) could declare tongs, which were collective refusals to sell to merchants unless they met certain demands. According to Park, a tong was "substantively similar to a strike, but it carried the weight of 'tradition' and was thus seen in a more positive light by the administration for a longer time."[1] For example, in 1885 Musa Molloh, King of Fulladu, declared a tong in response to actions by a merchant. Molloh forbade the trade of groundnuts and was willing to "keep the nuts till they spoil and make soap of them" rather than sell them.[2]
In the early 20th century, low wages, low rations, and poor working conditions led to industrial action on several occasions, including strikes. The first of note was a strike by members of the Gambia Company, West African Frontier Force, in 1904. In response to low wages, the soldiers deserted their posts, held demonstrations, and refused to work.[3] Beginning in 1919, dock workers in Kuntaur took direct action in response to groundnut merchants cutting their wages. This strike was described as a "riot" by the colonial government, and was blamed on the dockworkers having developed a "Bathurst mentality" and having experienced the "accompaniments of civilization."[4] Following this strike, the colonial government asserted more control over the wharf towns, and police presence increased.[4] A tong was declared in Kuntaur in 1923 for similar reasons, but this was supported by colonial officials. This is likely because a tong conjured the prospect of rural rebellion as it was backed by tradition and had a powerbase in the villages, whereas a strike did not.[5]
During the 1920s, there was increasing collective action in Bathurst. The Carpenters' and Shipwrights' Society went on strike in 1921,[6] and mechanics went on strike in the same year for higher wages, which they achieved. The state had intervened in the latter strike and had mediated between the workers and the employers, and reviewed the cost of living in the city. This created an expectation among other workers of further concessions, while the colonial government imagined it had settled the "labour question" for the forseeable future.[7]
Bathurst Trade Union
The first Gambian trade union – Bathurst Trade Union (BTU) – was founded during an industrial dispute by dock workers and sailors in Bathurst, the capital city of The Gambia. At the time, the country was still under British colonial rule, and would remain that way until independence in 1965.
The first trade union in The Gambia was founded in May 1929, the Bathurst Trade Union (BTU). Founded in the capital city, Bathurst (now Banjul), it represented artisans. Its leaders included Edward Francis Small, who had previously been involved in the National Congress of British West Africa, Momodu Jahumpa, a former shipwright, as well as others opposed to Small's political enemy at the time, Ousman Jeng, who was an African member of the Legislative Council of the Gambia.[8]
Shortly after its founding, the BTU became involved in a dispute with European private sector employers, who met as the Chamber of Commerce and decided to reduce the salaries of artisans and sailors in their employment. The cuts came into effect in October 1929, with successive groups of artisans being called out on strike in October and early November. By mid November, the employers were prepared not only to withdraw the wage cuts, but to recognise the union and increase wages. Before a settlement could be reached, there was a violent clash between a detachment of armed police and a group of strikers, in which a number of civilians were injured. The incident caused outcry in Bathurst and the employers hurriedly organised a conference with the union, during which substantial wage increases were conceded.[8]
The general labour position in Gambia is a chapter of the old story of imperialism. The final stage of imperialism has almost reached completion; the State machine is being continually lurred from "benevolent" and "philanthropic" uses to serve exclusive capitalist interests; the Negro workers and peasants are the hopeless underdogs of the situation - the forsaken victims of capitalist and imperialist exploitation.
Edward Francis Small at the International Conference of Negro Workers, July 1930[9]
Small spent much of the next two years trying to secure foreign financial assistance for the BTU and his other enterprises, the Gambia Outlook newspaper and the Gambia Farmers' Co-operative Marketing Association (GFMCA). He left the running of BTU in the hands of its general secretary, Thomas Collingwood Fye, but according to Hughes and Perfect "he proved a disastrous choice as lieutenant."[10] Small alienated an already hostile Gambian government and Colonial Office by associating the BTU with the League against Imperialism (LAI) and the International Trade Union Committee for Negro Workers (ITUC-NW). BTU was also affiliated to the Labour Research Department (LRDept). Both the LAI and LRDept mobilised support for the BTU during the 1929 strike.[10]
In July 1930, Small travelled to Hamburg to the International Conference of Negro Workers that was being organised by the ITUC-NW. At the conference, Small denounced "capitalist and imperialist exploitation." He was subsequently elected to the ITUC-NW executive and appointed associate editor of its newspaper, The Negro Worker. Small may also have attended the fifth conference of Profintern later in the year.[11] Following these associations, Small was branded a Communist sympathiser by the Colonial Office. West African colonial governments were informed of Small's associations and they began imposing baggage checks and restricting his travel, and Liberia was persuaded to revoke its invititation for Small to become their honorary consul in Bathurst.[11]
The 1929 BTU strike apparently influenced Sidney Webb's Passfield Memorandum in 1930, which, among other things, advocated for British colonies to establish constitutional mechanisms for registering trade unions. This was resisted in colonies besides The Gambia, where it was seen as an opportunity to weaken Small's influence. The Legislative Council passed the Ordinance in December 1932 and it received Royal Assent a month later. In March 1933, N'Jie, Owens, and Kebbah asked to register the Bathurst Trade Union, which was approved despite Small's complaints. Small's political opponents overruled his complaints and the Colonial Secretary refused to intervene on the advice of the Gambian government.[12] In the British House of Commons, a question was asked on this issue in June 1933. Philip Cunliffe-Lister, the Colonial Secretary, said in response that "Registration of trade unions in the Gambia is now compulsory, and, according to the latest information in my possession, the only union so registered is the Bathurst Trade Union. I understand that Mr. Small is not a member of this Trade Union."[13]
J. L. N'Jie was president of the BTU in April 1938, and was appointed to the colonial government's Labour Advisory Board.[14]
Colonial trade unionism
Gambia Labour Union
Edward Francis Small founded the Gambia Labour Union (GLU) in 1935, after losing control of the BTU.[15] The GLU was an affiliate of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) from 1949 to 1962. It was also affiliated to the International Federation of Christian Trade Unions and its African branch, the Pan-African Union of Believing Workers.[16] According to Perfect, the GLU was never an effective union, and after Small's death in 1958 it served as "little more than a social club for his former associates."[17] Its leadership in 1960 were retired senior artisans and civil servants, who took part in trade unionism "on a part-time basis" as they did not believe in strike action.[17]
In the 1940s, I. M. Garba-Jahumpa became secretary of the GLU. Garba-Jahumpa and Small worked together for a time but later quarralled and the former left the GLU, later forming the Gambia Amalgamated Trade Union (GATU).[15] The GLU rekindled its relationship with Garba-Jahumpa, and following the 1962 election it became affiliated with Garba-Jahumpa's political party, the Gambia Congress Party (GCP).[18] However, the political impact of the GLU prior to independence in 1965 was "very limited." None of its leaders stood for election, it did not attend constitutional talks with the United Kingdom, and it opposed the general strikes called by the Gambia Workers' Union (GWU) in 1960 and 1961.[18]
Gambia Workers' Union
The Gambia Workers' Union (GWU) was founded in late 1956 by M. E. Jallow.
In 1960, M. E. Jallow travelled with Arthur Ochwada, the founder of the Trade Union Congress of Kenya, to the United States and Scandinavia to solicit support for an autonomous African Trade Union Federation.[19] In March 1963, the GWU affiliated to the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions.[20]
Other trade unions
After he left the GLU in the 1940s, I. M. Garba-Jahumpa persuaded a number of other trade union leaders to join with him and in January 1947 he founded the Gambia Amalgamated Trade Union (GATU) as a rival to the GLU. According to Hughes and Perfect, "there can be little doubt that this was a deliberate maneuver designed to secure him votes in the forthcoming Legislative Council election."[21] A European trade union officer, "sympathetic to [Garba-Jahumpa] and hostile to Small", claimed that in 1947 GATU possessed between 250 and 1000 members, and the GLU less than 50.[22] Small won the subsequent 1947 election and the GATU was wound up in 1948.[23]
Another trade union that was founded in order to improve support in an election was the Motor Drivers' and Mechanics Union (MDMU), founded by John Colley Faye ahead of the 1951 Legislative Council election. According to Hughes and Perfect, for the rest of the 1950s the Gambian "labour movement was in a moribund state."[24]
Unlike several other African countries, the trade unions in The Gambia "did not feature prominently in stimulating or organizing radical opposition to the government in The Gambia."[20]
Post-colonial trade unionism
In the mid-1960s, the GLU adopted a Marxist ideology and in 1967 it affiliated to the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU). The GLU reportedly had a particular admiration for the North Korean leader, Kim Il-sung. The organisation awarded scholarships to a number of young Gambians to attend the Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow, Russia.[25]
The GWU sought to call a general strike in 1977 in support of sacked Gambia Utilities Corporation (GUC) workers, but it was suppressed by the govenrment. In January 1977 the GWU was deregistered.[26]
Trade unionism under Yahya Jammeh
Current trade unions and labour organisations
Name | Acronym | Industry | Active since | President or General Secretary | Affiliations |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Gambia Press Union | GPU | journalists | 1979 | Sheriff Bojang Jnr. | IFJ |
Gambia Transport Drivers' Union | drivers | Omar Ceesay | |||
Gambia Transport, Agricultural, Food and Industrial Workers Union | GTAFIWU | generalist | Mustapha Jobe | ||
Gambia National Transport Control Association | transport workers | Jarga Faal | |||
Gambia Teachers' Union | GTU | teachers | Essa Sowe (Acting) | ||
Teachers For Change | TFC | teachers | 2018 | Abdoulie Jallow | |
Gambia Dock and Maritime Workers' Union | dock workers and sailors | Lang Bala Saho | |||
Gambia Association of Resident Doctors | GARD | doctors | 2012 | ||
University of the Gambia Faculty and Staff Association | UTGFSA | higher education workers | Alieu Gibba | ||
University of the Gambia Students' Union | higher education students | ||||
Gambia Trade Union Bureau | GamTUB | 2009 | Kebba Masaneh Ceesay | ||
Gambian Workers' Confederation | GWC | trade union confederation | ITUC | ||
Gambia Labour Congress | GLC | ||||
Gambia National Trade Union Congress | GNTUC | trade union confederation | Ebrima Garba Cham | ||
Gambia Horticulture and General Workers Union | |||||
Gambia Hotel, Restaurant and Catering Workers union | |||||
National Committee of Informal Workers union | |||||
Committee for Public Service Employees | |||||
Gambia Pensioners Association | |||||
Gambia Bar Association | GBA | before 1965 | Salieu Taal |
References
- ^ Park, p. 199
- ^ Park, pp. 199–200
- ^ Park, p. 198
- ^ a b Park, p. 199
- ^ Park, p. 200
- ^ Darboe, Alieu (February 2010). "The Gambia: 1994-present". International Center on Nonviolent Conflict. Retrieved 13 May 2020.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Park, p. 201
- ^ a b Hughes and Perfect, p. 96
- ^ Small, Edward Francis (January 1931). "Situation of Workers and Peasants in Gambia, West Africa". The International Negro Worker Review. Hamburg, Germany: International Trade Union Committee for Negro Workers. p. 22. Retrieved 13 May 2020.
- ^ a b Hughes and Perfect, p. 97
- ^ a b Hughes and Perfect, p. 98-99
- ^ Hughes and Perfect, 102-103
- ^ "Gambia (Trade Unions)". House of Commons Hansard. Retrieved 13 May 2020.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "Annual Report on the Social and Economic Progress of the People of The Gambia, 1938" (PDF). University of Illinois Library. Retrieved 13 May 2020.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ a b Hughes and Perfect, pp. 110-111
- ^ Labor Digests on Countries in Africa (PDF). Washington, D.C.: United States Department of Labor. 1966. p. 59.
- ^ a b Perfect, David (1986). "Organized Labour and Politics in The Gambia: 1960-85". Labour, Capital and Society. 19 (2): 177 – via JSTOR.
- ^ a b Perfect, David (1986). "Organized Labour and Politics in The Gambia: 1960-85". Labour, Capital and Society. 19 (2): 179–180 – via JSTOR.
- ^ KWAME NKRUMAH'S THEORY ANI) PRACTICE OF LABOUR ANI) THEm MANIFESTATION IN THE KENYAN TRADE -UNIONISM TO 1966
- ^ a b Hughes and Perfect, p. 205
- ^ Hughes and Perfect, p. 112
- ^ Hughes and Perfect, p.114
- ^ Hughes and Perfect, p. 121
- ^ Hughes and Perfect, p. 142
- ^ Hughes and Perfect, p. 200
- ^ Hughes and Perfect, p. 207
Sources
- Hughes, Arnold; Perfect, David (2006). A Political History of The Gambia, 1816-1994. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press.