| Founded | 1963 |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Nakuru, Kenya |
| Location | |
Members | 200,000 (2005) |
The Kenya Plantation and Agricultural Workers Union (KPAWU) is a trade union which represents 200,000 agriculture sector workers (2005 estimate [1] ) in Kenya, including tea, coffee, and flower workers. It is a part of the Central Organization of Trade Unions (Kenya). The KPAWU was established in 1963 when several unions were amalgamated. [2] Its head office is in Nakuru, a regional centre. [3] The KPAWU is affiliated to the Central Organization of Trade Unions. [1]
The KPAWU is engaged with a number of labour issues. Some of its work is focused on the elimination of child labour in Kenya's agricultural sector. [3] Where plantation owners are seeking Fair Trade certification for their produce, the KPAWU plays a role in the implementation of international labour standards required under the Fair Trade rules. [4]
The KPAWU is opposed to mechanization of plantations on the grounds that the introduction of machines is a threat to jobs. For example, in 2006 it threatened strike action against a plantation owner which sought to introduce tea-picking machines. [5]
KPAWU violates the freedom of association. It has brought lawsuits against another trade union that wants to end KPAWU's monopoly in the floriculture sector. [6]
1. David Hyde. Plantation Struggles in Kenya: trade unionism on the land, 1945–65. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London [2000]. This is a detailed historical account of the formative years of the K.P.A.W.U.
https://1library.net/document/zw16k61q-plantation-struggles-kenya-trade-unionism-land.html
2. David Hyde. Undercurrents to Independence: Plantation Struggles in Kenya's Central Province 1959–60. Journal of Eastern African Studies Volume 4 Issue 3, 2010. This research article gives a detailed historical account of the coffee plantation strikes and the rise of the Coffee Plantation Workers Union in the run up to independence.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233480320_Undercurrents_to_independence_Plantation_struggles_in_Kenya's_Central_Province_1959-60
3. David Hyde. Decolonisation and 'Development Untoward': Crisis and Conflict on Kenya's Tea Plantations, 1959-60, chapter 8 in 'Workers of the Empire Unite: Radical and Popular Challenges to British Imperialism', [Y.Beliard and N.Kirk eds.] Liverpool University Press, 2021. This account tells the story of workers struggles and the role of the Tea Plantation Workers Union on the colony's tea plantations in western and central Kenya.
The economy of Kenya is market-based with a few state enterprises. Kenya has an emerging market and is an averagely industrialised nation ahead of its East African peers. Currently a lower middle income nation, it plans to be a newly industrialised nation by 2030. Major industries include agriculture, forestry, fishing, mining, manufacturing, energy, tourism and financial services. As of 2020, Kenya had the third largest economy in Sub-Saharan Africa, behind Nigeria and South Africa.
The World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) is an international federation of trade unions established in 1945. Founded in the immediate aftermath of World War Two, the organization built on the pre-war legacy of the International Federation of Trade Unions as a single structure for trade unions world-wide, following the World Trade Union Conference in London, United Kingdom.
Fair trade is a term for an arrangement designed to help producers in developing countries achieve sustainable and equitable trade relationships. The fair trade movement combines the payment of higher prices to exporters with improved social and environmental standards. The movement focuses in particular on commodities, or products that are typically exported from developing countries to developed countries but is also used in domestic markets, most notably for handicrafts, coffee, cocoa, wine, sugar, fruit, flowers and gold.
Fairtrade International, or Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International E.V. is a product-oriented multistakeholder group aimed at promoting the lives of farmers and workers through trade. Fairtrade's work is guided by a global strategy focused on ensuring that all farmers earn a living income, and agricultural workers earn a living wage. Fairtrade works with farmers and workers of more than 300 commodities. The main products promoted under the Fairtrade label are coffee, cocoa, banana, flowers, tea, and sugar.
The General Confederation of Labour is a national trade union center, founded in 1895 in the city of Limoges. It is the first of the five major French confederations of trade unions.
Trade unions in India are registered and file annual returns under the Trade Union Act (1926). Statistics on trade unions are collected annually by the Labour Bureau of the Ministry of Labour, Government of India. As per the latest data, released for 2012, there were 16,154 trade unions which had a combined membership of 9.18 million. The trade union movement in India is largely divided along political lines and follows a pre-Independence pattern of overlapping interactions between political parties and unions. The net result of this type of system is debated as it has both advantages and disadvantages. According to the data submitted by various trade unions to the Ministry of Labour and Employment as part of a survey, INTUC with a combined membership of 33.3 million, has emerged as the largest trade union in India as of 2013.
Traidcraft was a UK-based Fairtrade organisation, established in 1979. Its trading arm, Traidcraft plc, which sold fairly traded products, went into administration in January 2023.
Social movement unionism (SMU) is a trend of theory and practice in contemporary trade unionism. Strongly associated with the labour movements of developing countries, social movement unionism is distinct from many other models of trade unionism because it concerns itself with more than organizing workers around workplace issues, pay and terms and conditions. It engages in wider political struggles for human rights, social justice and democracy. Social movement unionism grew out of political struggles in developing countries and was theorized as a distinct industrial relations model in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The Workers' Unity League (WUL) was established in January 1930 as a militant industrial union labour central closely related to the Communist Party of Canada on the instructions of the Communist International.
Trade unions in Ghana first emerged in the 1920s and have played an important role in the country's economy and politics ever since.
The fair trade movement has undergone several important changes like the operation for ten thousand villages to open their businesses since early days following World War II. Fair trade, first seen as a form of charity advocated by religious organizations, has radically changed in structure, philosophy and approach. The past fifty years have witnessed massive changes in the diversity of fair trade proponents, the products traded and their distribution networks.
The Trade Union Unity League (TUUL) was an industrial union umbrella organization under the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA) between 1929 and 1935. The group was an American affiliate of the Red International of Labor Unions. The formation of the TUUL was the result of the Communist International's Third Period policy, which ordered affiliated Communist Parties to pursue a strategy of dual unionism and thus abandon attempts at "bore from within" existing trade unions. TUUL unions aimed to organize semi-skilled and unskilled workers, many whom had been expelled from the American Federation of Labor (AFL). According to the TUUL, the AFL was "an instrument of the capitalists for the exploitation of the workers." Thus, the TUUL was formed as an organization in opposition to the AFL."
Trade unions in Botswana operate within a longstanding democratic system in which the government of Botswana has ratified the International Labour Organization's core conventions, including Conventions 87 and 98.
India is one of the largest tea producers in the world, although over 70 percent of its tea is consumed within India itself. A number of renowned teas, such as Assam and Darjeeling, also grow exclusively in India. The Indian tea industry has grown to own many global tea brands and has evolved into one of the most technologically equipped tea industries in the world. Tea production, certification, exportation and all facets of the tea trade in India are controlled by the Tea Board of India.
The Kenyan tea workers strike of 2007 was a strike action undertaken by members of the Kenya Plantation and Agricultural Workers Union (KPAWU) against Unilever Tea Kenya Ltd (UTK) over a wage increase. It took place in the Kericho region of Kenya and involved an estimated 10,000 workers from eighteen tea plantations. The strike began on 8 September 2007 and ended on 14 September 2007 when UTK agreed to pay an 8% wage increase.
Fr. Francis Lipwoni Atwoli, NOM (DZA) CBS, EBS, MBS is a Kenyan trade unionist who is currently serving as the Secretary General of the Central Organization of Trade Unions (Kenya), COTU (K). He has served in that capacity since he was first elected in August 2001. He equally serves as the General Secretary of the Kenya Plantation and Agricultural Workers' Union KPAWU since 1994. Internationally, Atwoli serves workers as a titular member of the International Labor Organization Governing Body, President of the Organization of African Trade Union Unity (OATUU) & Vice President of the International Trade Union Confederation.
A fair trade certification is a product certification within the market-based movement fair trade. The most widely used fair trade certification is FLO International's, the International Fairtrade Certification Mark, used in Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia and New Zealand. Fair Trade Certified Mark is the North American equivalent of the International Fairtrade Certification Mark. As of January 2011, there were more than 1,000 companies certified by FLO International's certification and a further 1,000 or so certified by other ethical and fairtrade certification schemes around the world.
The All-Indonesian Federation of Workers'Organisations was the largest trade union federation in Indonesia. Founded during the period of the country's independence in the late 1940s, the federation grew rapidly in the 1950s. Initially formed with loose connections to the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI) and with members from other parties, over time the PKI became dominant in the organisation. With the introduction of President Sukaro's guided democracy in the late 1950s, SOBSI was formally recognised and given a place in the national decision-making structures. In the 1960s, SOBSI came into conflict with the Army, whose officers controlled the country's state enterprises. Following the 1965 coup that subsequently produced Suharto's New Order regime, SOBSI was declared illegal, its members killed and imprisoned and most of the leadership executed.
The General Union of Negro African Workers, more widely known by its French name Union générale des travailleurs d'Afrique noire, was a pan-African trade union organization. Ahmed Sékou Touré was the main leader of the organization. In its heyday, around 90% of the trade unions in Francophone West Africa were affiliated to UGTAN.
Trade unions in Uganda have existed since the 1930s. For much of Uganda's history trade union activities have been greatly shaped by national politics and by events external to the country's labour movement. The experiences of trade unions in Uganda fall into four periods: during the British colonial period, from independence to the rise to power of Idi Amin (1962-1971), the Idi Amin dictatorship (1971-1979) and through to the present.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
 | This article related to an African trade union is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
 | This Kenya related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
