Paper short abstract:

The International Trade Union Confederation is a trade union organisation created in 2007. The organisation is a catalyst of structural changes within unions themselves. This paper discusses its agendas and strategies as as issues such as informal labour and bargaining power.

Paper long abstract:

This paper is about the African Regional Organisation of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC-Africa), a pan-African trade union organisation created in November 2007 following the merger of two former African trade union organisations, namely ICFTU-Afro and DOAWTU (ituc-africa.org). ITUC Africa is the largest umbrella organisation of trade unions in Africa. The internationalism (or regionalism) of trade unions is nothing new in African international labour history; however, ITUC-Africa differs from its precursors in many ways. The collapse of the socialist/soviet bloc partly explains the change in union political strategy, but other elements are also at play in terms of explaining today's transformations. This presentation first discusses the position of ITUC-Africa and its members vis-à-vis the traditional, post-independence tripartite structure upon which unions base their policies - in particular, the extent to which that structure is efficacious. Secondly, this paper analyses to what extent ITUC-Africa can pave the way towards structural changes within unions themselves: i.e. workers representation and political effectiveness especially at the national level (although the micro level or the workplace setting are also interesting to study). Finally, crucial contemporary issues such as informal labour inclusion and new campaigning strategies are discussed with reference to the impact on the level of bargaining power with investors and/or employers.