Trade unions in Sierra Leone
| National organization(s) | SLLC |
|---|---|
| Regulatory authority | Ministry of Labour and Social Security |
| Primary legislation | Employment Act 2023 |
| Total union membership | 354,747 (2022)[1] |
| Trade union density | 13% (2022)[1] |
| Global Rights Index | |
4 Systematic violations of rights | |
| International Labour Organization | |
| Sierra Leone is a member of the ILO | |
| Convention ratification | |
| Freedom of Association | 15 June 1961 |
| Right to Organise | 13 June 1961 |
Trade unions in Sierra Leone first emerged in the period around World War I, with reports indicating that civil servants organised unions as early as 1912.[2] The Railway Workers Union was founded in 1919.[3] In the late 1930s, trade unions affiliated to the Youth League formed the Trade Union Congress (TUC) to coordinate actions within the labour movement.[4] In 1940, trade unions were legalised.[5] In 1946 tripartite bargaining councils were established that incorporated trade unions for minimum wage and sectoral bargaining with employers.[6] The Sierra Leone Labour Congress (SLLC) was founded in 1976. Although the country's civil war at the end of the 20th Century had a devastating effect on the labour movement,[7] unions played an important role in nonviolent resistance, launching a national strike in the immediate aftermath of the 1997 coup by the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council.[8] Since the end of the civil war, trade unionism in the informal sector has grown.[9]
Existing unions[edit]
| Members | CBAs | CBA
coverage | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Artisans Public Works of Services Employees Union | 2,600 | 6 | 12,000 |
| Clerical Banking Insurance Accounting Petroleum Union | 3,010 | 7 | 15,000 |
| Construction Workers Union | 2,500 | 1 | 8,000 |
| Electricity Employees Union | 2,200 | 1 | 20,000 |
| Hotel Food Drinks Tobacco Entertainment Workers Unions | 580 | 2 | 14,000 |
| Union of Mass Media, Financial Institutions, Chemical Industries & General Workers | 1,500 | 2 | 13,000 |
| Maritime & Waterfront Workers Union | 1,500 | 2 | 13,000 |
| Municipal & General Government Employees Union | 1,000 | 2 | 3,000 |
| National Union of Civil Servants | 1,500 | 1 | 8,000 |
| National Union of Forestry & Agricultural Workers | 1,500 | 3 | 8,000 |
| Sierra Leone Fishermen's Union | 1,600 | 1 | 3,000 |
| Sierra Leone Dockworkers Union | 1,500 | 1 | 4,000 |
| Sierra Leone Health Services Union | 4,000 | 1 | 16,000 |
| Sierra Leone National Seamen's Union | 1,550 | 1 | 1,500 |
| Sierra Leone Teachers’ Union | 36,000 | 1 | 40,000 |
| Sierra Leone Union of Postal & Telecommuncations Employees Union | 1,054 | 1 | 2,500 |
| Sierra Leone Reporter Union | 450 | – | – |
| Sierra Leone Union of Security, Watchmen & General Workers | 3,200 | 2 | 5,000 |
| Skilled & Manual Productive Workers Union | 810 | 4 | 1,300 |
| United Mine Workers Union | 1,602 | 1 | 6,000 |
| Union of Railway Plantation, Minerals, Industry & Construction | 300 | 1 | 1,000 |
| Sierra Leone Port Authority Senior Staff Association | 82 | – | – |
| Members | CBAs | CBA
coverage | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Indigenous Petty Traders Association | 55,000 | – | – |
| Indigenous Photographers’ Union | 1,000 | – | – |
| Sierra Leone Artisanal Fishermen's Union | 17,106 | – | – |
| Sierra Leone Traders Union | 105,000 | – | – |
| Sierra Leone Musicians Union | 500 | – | – |
| Sierra Leone Bike Riders Union | 120,000 | – | – |
| Motor Drivers & General Transport Workers Union | 50,000 | 1 | 1,000 |
| Union of Timber Factory Owners & Workers | 1,237 | – | – |
| Sierra Leone Commercial Tricycle Riders Union | 700 | – | – |
| Sierra Leone Technicians Union | 700 | – | – |
| Home and General Workers Union | 1,500 | – | – |
| Omolankay Whellbarrow & Porters Union | 1,000 | – | – |
References[edit]
Footnotes[edit]
- ^ a b DTDA 2023, p. 7.
- ^ Orr 1966, p. 66.
- ^ Amolo 1979, p. 37.
- ^ Conway 1968, p. 61.
- ^ Hotchkiss 1979, p. 439.
- ^ Luke 1985a, p. 439.
- ^ Stirling 2013, p. 536.
- ^ Press 2015, pp. 105–148.
- ^ McDermott 2023.
- ^ a b DTDA 2023, p. 30.
Sources[edit]
- Abdullah, Ibrahim (1994). "Rethinking the Freetown Crowd: The Moral Economy of the 1919 Strikes and Riot in Sierra Leone". Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue Canadienne des Études Africaines. 28 (2): 197. doi:10.2307/485715.
- Abdullah, Ibrahim (August 1995). ""Liberty or Death": Working Class Agitation and the Labour Question in Colonial Freetown, 1938–1939". International Review of Social History. 40 (2): 195–221. doi:10.1017/S0020859000113203.
- Abdullah, Ibrahim (1997). "The Colonial State and Wage Labor in Postwar Sierra Leone, 1945–1960: Attempts at Remaking the Working Class". International Labor and Working-Class History. 52: 87–105. doi:10.1017/S0147547900006955.
- Amman, John; O’Donnell, James (2011). "The Sierra Leone Teachers Union: Labor in a Post-Conflict Society". WorkingUSA. 14 (1): 57–71. doi:10.1111/j.1743-4580.2011.00320.x. ISSN 1089-7011.
- Amolo, Milcah (1979). "Trade Unionism and Colonial Authority Sierra Leone: 1930—1945". Transafrican Journal of History. 8 (1/2): 36–52. ISSN 0251-0391.
- Conway, H. E. (1968). "Labour Protest Activity in Sierra Leone during the Early Part of the Twentieth Century". Labour History (15): 49. doi:10.2307/27507909.
- Denzer, LaRay (June 1982). "Wallace-Johnson and the Sierra Leone Labor Crisis of 1939". African Studies Review. 25 (2/3): 159. doi:10.2307/524215.
- Hotchkiss, W. E. (1979). "Sources and Characteristics of Union Leadership: A Note on Sierra Leone". Indian Journal of Industrial Relations. 14 (3): 437–447. ISSN 0019-5286.
- "Labour Market Profile Sierra Leone – 2023/2024" (PDF). ulandssekretariatet.dk. Danish Trade Union Development Agency. April 2023. pp. 1–36. Retrieved 8 November 2023.
- Luke, David Fashole (1985a). "The Development of Modern Trade Unionism in Sierra Leone, Part I". The International Journal of African Historical Studies. 18 (3): 425. doi:10.2307/218647.
- Luke, David Fashole (1985b). "The Development of Modern Trade Unionism in Sierra Leone, Part II". The International Journal of African Historical Studies. 18 (4): 625. doi:10.2307/218800.
- McDermott, Joshua Lew (June 2023). "Searching for the Informal Labor Movement: Theorizing Class and Collective Action among Informal Workers in West Africa". Review of Radical Political Economics. 55 (2): 333–352. doi:10.1177/04866134221134548.
- McQuinn, Mark (2017). "Strengths and Weaknesses of African Trade Unions in the Neoliberal Period with a Sierra Leone Case Study". Africana Studia. 28: 111–129.
- Orr, Charles A. (1966). "Trade Unionism in Colonial Africa". The Journal of Modern African Studies. 4 (1): 65–81. ISSN 0022-278X.
- Press, Robert M. (2015). "Mass Noncooperation Helps Defeat a Violent Junta". Ripples of Hope. Amsterdam University Press. ISBN 978-90-8964-748-1.
- Stirling, John (May 2011). "Trade unions in a fragile state: the case of Sierra Leone: Trade unions in Sierra Leone". Industrial Relations Journal. 42 (3): 236–253. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2338.2011.00621.x.
- Stirling, John (19 December 2013). "Power in practice: Trade union education in Sierra Leone". McGill Journal of Education / Revue des sciences de l'éducation de McGill. 48 (3): 531–550. ISSN 1916-0666.
