Gambia Workers' Union

Last updated
GWU
Full nameGambia Workers' Union
Founded1956
Date dissolved1977 (deregistered)
Office location Banjul, the Gambia
Country The Gambia

The Gambia Workers' Union (GWU) was a general trade union in Gambia.

Contents

History

The GWU was founded in 1956 by M.E. Jallow, the organisation's first Secretary General, and officially registered in July 1958. Initially organising workers in the construction sector, the union grew in the late 1950s following successful actions with dock workers who won improved wages and bonuses. [1] :177 In 1959, the union merged with the Gambia Labour Union (GLU), although this merger was annulled shortly afterwards over differences towards independence and international trade union relations. [2] In 1977, the government withdrew the union's certificate of registration following a failure to submit accounts. [1] :193

See also

Related Research Articles

A trade union, often simply called a union, is an organization of workers who have come together to achieve many common goals, such as protecting the integrity of their trade, improving safety standards, and attaining better wages, benefits, and working conditions through the increased bargaining power wielded by the creation of a monopoly of the workers. Trade unions typically fund the formal organization, head office, and legal team functions of the trade union through regular fees or union dues. The delegate staff of the trade union representation in the workforce are made up of workplace volunteers who are appointed by members in democratic elections.

General Confederation of Labour (France)

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.

Transport and General Workers Union

The Transport and General Workers' Union was one of the largest general trade unions in the United Kingdom and Ireland – where it was known as the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers' Union (ATGWU) to differentiate itself from the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union – with 900,000 members. It was founded in 1922 and Ernest Bevin served as its first general secretary.

British Honduras Workers and Tradesmen's Union, the first central trade union organization in the Central American country Belize. Founded in 1939 by Antonio Soberanis Gómez. Registered as a legal trade union in 1943. Shortly thereafter it changed its name to General Workers Union (GWU).

The Fiji Trades Union Congress (FTUC) is a trade union organisation in Fiji that was founded in 1952 under the leadership of Pandit Ami Chandra as the Fiji Industrial Workers Congress (FIWC). As the FIWC the organisation was the third federation in Oceania, after the Australian Council of Trade Unions and the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions, to join the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions. In 1975 the FTUC's membership was 25,000. The FTUC is affiliated to the International Trade Union Confederation. It has a close relationship with the Fiji Labour Party. The FTUC has 30 trade union affiliates, covering the public and private sectors. Major affiliates include: the Fiji Public Service Association, the Fiji Teachers Union, the Fiji Sugar & General Workers Union, the National Union of Hospitality, Catering & Tourism Industries Employees and the National Union of Factory and Commercial Workers Union.

The Gambian Workers' Confederation is a trade union centre in the Gambia. It is affiliated with the International Trade Union Confederation.

General Workers Union (Malta)

The General Workers' Union (GWU) is a national trade union center in Malta. The GWU was founded in 1943 and has been politically identified with the Labour Party as the trade union is the major left-wing trade union in Malta. The two were statutorily fused from 1978 to 1992, and continue to share many common objectives.

There are few trade unions in Oman, established following a 2006 Decree by the Sultan of Oman permitting their organization. Some of these, have done completed elections, they are members of the General Federation of Oman Trade Union (GFOTU). Oman has become the third Gulf Arab state, after Bahrain and Kuwait, to have a general federation of trade unions.

The National Trade Union Centre of Trinidad and Tobago (NATUC) is a national trade union center in Trinidad and Tobago. It was created in 1991 by the merger of the Trinidad and Tobago Labour Congress (TTLC) and the Council of Progressive Trade Unions (CPTU). It has a membership of 80,000.

Trade unions in South Africa have a history dating back to the 1880s. From the beginning unions could be viewed as a reflection of the racial disunity of the country, with the earliest unions being predominantly for white workers. Through the turbulent years of 1948–1991 trade unions played an important part in developing political and economic resistance, and eventually were one of the driving forces in realising the transition to an inclusive democratic government.

International Trade Union Confederation

The International Trade Union Confederation is the world's largest trade union federation. It was formed on 1 November 2006 out of the merger of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) and the World Confederation of Labour (WCL). The Founding Congress of the ITUC was held in Vienna and was preceded by the dissolution congresses of both the ICFTU and the WCL. The ITUC has three main regional organizations: the Asia-Pacific Regional Organization, the American Regional Organization, and the African Regional Organization. The Trade Union Development Cooperation Network (TUDCN) is an initiative of the ITUC whose main objective is to bring the trade union perspective into international development policy debates and improve the coordination and effectiveness of trade union development cooperation activities.

Trade unions in Benin operate in relative freedom, with approximately 75% of the formal sector being unionized. There are, however, concerns expressed by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) about the discrepancies between the government's Labour Code and the labour practices outlined by ILO Conventions 87 and 98 - specifically the right of unions to form without government approval, the right of seafarers to organize or strike, and restrictions on strikes.

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.

The Bathurst Trade Union (BTU) was the first trade union in The Gambia and the first legally registered trade union in the African continent. Founded by Edward Francis Small in 1929 in Bathurst, the organisation emerged from the Carpenters' and Shipwrights' Society.

Len McCluskey

Leonard David McCluskey is a British trade unionist. He is General Secretary of Unite the Union, the largest affiliate and a major donor to the Labour Party. As a young adult, he spent some years working in the Liverpool Docks for the Mersey Docks and Harbour Company prior to becoming a full-time union official for the Transport and General Workers' Union (T&GWU) in 1979.

The Railway African Workers' Union (R.A.W.U.) was a trade union in Rhodesia which represented black African railway workers employed by the Rhodesian Railways.

International Workers Day Celebration in the international labour movement on May Day

International Workers' Day, also known as Labour Day in some countries and often referred to as May Day, is a celebration of labourers and the working classes that is promoted by the international labour movement and occurs every year on May Day.

The labour movement or labor movement consists of two main wings: the trade union movement or labor union movement, also called trade unionism or labor unionism on the one hand, and the political labour movement on the other.

Trade unions in The Gambia are regulated under the Labour Act 2007. The first trade union was the Bathurst Trade Union (BTU), founded in 1929, which led a general strike that year. General strikes were also led by the Gambia Workers' Union (GWU) in 1960, 1961, 1967, and 1970, although not all were successful. There are three trade union centres in The Gambia: the Gambia Trade Union Bureau (GamTUB), the Gambian Workers' Confederation (GWC), and the Gambia National Trade Union Congress (GNTUC). The country joined the International Labour Organization (ILO) in 1995.

References

  1. 1 2 Perfect, David (1986). "Organized Labour and Politics in The Gambia: 1960-85". Labour, Capital and Society / Travail, Capital et Société. 19 (2): 168–199. ISSN   0706-1706. JSTOR   43157755.
  2. Blackburn, Daniel, ed. (2016). Trade unions of the world (7th ed.). London: International Centre for Trade Union Rights. p. 192. ISBN   978-0-9933556-1-5.