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Tene Tougma & Soulemane So from Burkina Faso





Group photo of the UNI Africa Executive Committee, Cairo





Jennings with Elizabeth Denyoh & Vivian Adoboe-tefe from Ghana

In an address to the UNI Africa Executive Committee meeting in Cairo, Egypt 9 – 11 March, UNI General Secretary Philip Jennings said the global financial crisis was not caused by workers yet “all of us are paying the price.”

“The business elite are hoping that this rough weather will pass by and then it will be business as usual. We need a financial transaction tax (Tobin tax) that will provide resources for social protection to workers everywhere. Currently, only five per cent of workers globally have social protection.”

He said business executives were earning between 900 and 400 more than the average worker and urged trade unions to ensure that there was a voice in the workplace to reduce the gap between the rich and the poor.

Noting that the services sector was growing rapidly globally, Jennings urged trade unions to lead the way to organise the new generation of workers in the private sector, particularly in Egypt.

He praised UNI Africa for signing the global agreement with Africa’s biggest retailer Shoprite Checkers saying now was the time to move UNI Africa from facing its future to building its future.

And UNI Africa President Bones Skulu said that though the global economy was on a recovery path the plight of workers was not improving. “Workers are looking to us for help and if we fail then history will judge us harshly,” he said.

And ILO representative in Egypt Mr Youssef El-Karoany observed that solidarity was vital to achieve decent work. He said without solidarity between trade unions the workers’ fight for decent work would not be achieved.

He urged unions to share good practices and strengthen their constituents to engage in social dialogue at enterprise level saying “it should be noted that all workers are disadvantaged when it comes to social dialogue.”