Trade unions in Niger

Trade unions in Niger are free to engage in regular unionist activities, with constitutionally protected provisions for forming and joining trade unions. However, with 95% the working population engaged in subsistence activities,[1] the numbers of trade union members are low.

International Labour Organization

Niger ratified the ILO conventions Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 February 27, 1961, and Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 March 23, 1962.

Trade unions

The Union of Workers' Trade Unions of Niger (USTN) is the largest trade union centre with a membership of 60,000. The Democratic Confederation of Workers of Niger (CDTN) was formed in 2001 as a breakaway union from the USTN. The Nigerien Confederation of Labour (CNT) is the third largest trade union centre.

Strike actions

2009 Constitutional crisis

On 25 June 2009, the CDTN trade union confederation led a 24 hour general strike across the nation to protest the President's referendum plans, after a previous strike had been indefinitely postponed on 18 June. All seven trade union confederations took part, in the first general strike since the creation of the Fifth Republic in 1999, and the first joint action by all seven major confederations. The organizers provided skeleton staffs of union workers for hospitals, water and electric utilities, and airports.[2][3]

References

  1. ↑ ICTUR et al.,, ed. (2005). Trade Unions of the World (6th ed.). London, UK: John Harper Publishing. ISBN 0-9543811-5-7.
  2. ↑ Niger president's main ally quits the government. AFP. 25 June 2009.
  3. ↑ Niger: grève générale jeudi contre le projet de référendum de M. Tandja. AFP. 24 June 2009.


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