General Federation of Jordanian Trade Unions

Last updated
GFJTU
General Federation of Jordanian Trade Unions
Founded1954
Headquarters Amman, Jordan
Location
Members
200,000
Key people
 Mazen Al-Maayta
Affiliations ITUC


The General Federation of Jordanian Trade Unions (GFJTU) is the national trade union center in Jordan. It was founded in 1954.

Contents

With a membership of 135,000 the GFJTU as of 2019, the GFJTU is the sole trade union center in the country with 17 affiliated unions, although affiliation is not mandatory.[ citation needed ]

The GFJTU is affiliated with the International Trade Union Confederation. The General Federation of Labour Trade Unions is a member of other Arab and International Confederations as well, including the International Confederation of Arab Trade Unions.

History

The GFJTU was established in 1954 through the initiative of six Jordanian Labour trade unions. Their aim was to reinforce the Jordanian Labour Movement, as well as to encourage workers to join trade unions.

The General Federation grew from 23 unions in 1957 to 29 unions in 1967, out of a total of 40 at the time. [1]

As of 2019, the trade union membership rate in GFJTU was declining significantly during the last two decades from 230,000 in 2001 to 135,000 in 2019, which equals a fall of 41%.

Leadership and structure

The current leadership of the GFJTU is as follows: [2]

The election period is every five years.

The GFJTU is made up of three organizations: The General Conference, The Central Council, and The Executive Committee. The General Conference, per its charter, is the authority specialized in the formulation of GFJTU policies. During the periods between convening conferences, the Central Council becomes the highest authority. Finally, the Executive Committee, which consists of one representative from each trade union, is the de facto authority of the Federation. [3]

The leadership and structure is set out in the Charter of the Federation.

Controversies

The GFJTU has been criticized by independent unions and by labor rights activists for having "unified, non-democratic and centralized by-laws that are imposed on all trade unions and their general federation". [4] Additionally, the leadership of the GFJTU has been criticized for rejecting proposals for reform that would make the power structure of the organization more democratic. The GFJTU has been described as a "semi-governmental institution" due to being fully financed by the government and the Social Security Corporation. Membership in affiliate unions and therefore membership in the GFJTU is mandatory for thousands of Jordanian workers. [4]

In 2013, following the Arab Spring and waves of labor protests, nine unions got together to found the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Jordan (FITU-J) as an alternative to the official General Federation of Jordanian Trade Unions. [5] The General Federation of Jordanian Trade Unions (GFJTU) and affiliate trade unions issued multiple statements declaring that the independent trade unions are illegal and illegitimate. [6]

Trade unions in Jordan

There are some associations and syndicates in Jordan which are not recognized through the mechanisms laid out in Jordanian labor law, and are therefore not affiliated with the GFJTU and are not referred to as "Trade unions." There are over 16 professional associations in Jordan. These include:

These professional associations are not formally recognized as trade unions under Jordan Labor Law.

The 17 trade unions affiliated with the GFJTU are the following:

  1. The General Union of Construction Workers
  2. The General Union of Petroleum and Chemicals Employees
  3. The General Trade Union of Municipality Employees
  4. The General Union of Private Education Employees
  5. The General Union of Public Services and Free Professions Employees
  6. The General Union of Health Services Employees
  7. The General Union of Railway Employees
  8. The General Union of Food Industry Employees
  9. The General Trade Union of Printing, Photography, and Paper Employees
  10. The General Trade Union of Textile Industry
  11. The General Trade Union of Electricity Employees
  12. The General Trade Union of the Employees of Banks, Insurance, and Auditing
  13. The General Trade Union of Mines and Mining Employees
  14. The General Trade Union of Commercial Stores Employees
  15. The General Trade Union of Ports and Clearance Employees
  16. The General Trade Union of Air Transport and Tourism Employees
  17. The General Trade Union of Land Transport Employees and Mechanics [7]

There are also independent trade unions in Jordan. There are six independent trade unions:

  1. The Independent Trade Union for Workers in Phosphate
  2. The Independent Trade Union for Workers in the Jordanian Electricity Company
  3. The Independent Trade Union for Workers in Printing Press
  4. The Independent Trade Union for Workers in Municipalities
  5. The Independent Trade Union for Workers in Agriculture

In 2013, these trade unions announced the formation of their own Independent Trade Union Federation according to democratic by-laws. [8]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Confederation of Free Trade Unions</span> International trade union federation

The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) was an international trade union. It came into being on 7 December 1949 following a split within the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU), and was dissolved on 31 October 2006 when it merged with the World Confederation of Labour (WCL) to form the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Communications Workers of America</span> U.S./Canadian labor union

The Communications Workers of America (CWA) is the largest communications and media labor union in the United States, representing about 700,000 members in both the private and public sectors. The union has 27 locals in Canada via CWA-SCA Canada representing about 8,000 members. CWA has several affiliated subsidiary labor unions bringing total membership to over 700,000. CWA is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and affiliated with the AFL–CIO, the Strategic Organizing Center the Canadian Labour Congress, and UNI Global Union. The current president is Chris Shelton.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canadian Labour Congress</span> National trade union centre

The Canadian Labour Congress, or CLC is a national trade union centre, the central labour body in Canada to which most Canadian labour unions are affiliated.

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.

Education International (EI) is a global union federation (GUF) of teachers' trade unions consisting of 401 member organizations in 172 countries and territories that represents over 30 million education personnel from pre-school through university. It is one of the world's largest sectoral global union federations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations</span>

The International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations (IUF) is a global union federation of trade unions with members in a variety of industries, many of which relate to food processing.

The Australian Workers' Union (AWU) is one of Australia's largest and oldest trade unions. It traces its origins to unions founded in the pastoral and mining industries in the late 1880s and it currently has approximately 80,000 members. It has exercised an outsized influence on the Australian Trade Union movement and on the Australian Labor Party throughout its history.

The Workers' Union was a general union based in the United Kingdom, but with some branches in other countries. During the 1910s, it was the largest general union in the UK, but it entered a rapid decline in the 1920s, and eventually became part of the Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU).

Labour unions emerged in Japan in the second half of the Meiji period, after 1890, as the country underwent a period of rapid industrialization. Until 1945, however, the labour movement remained weak, impeded by a lack of legal rights, anti-union legislation, management-organized factory councils, and political divisions between “cooperative” and radical unionists.

Community is a British trade union which formed in 2004. The union represents workers in a diverse range of sectors, including iron and steel, justice and custodial, domestic appliance manufacturing, textiles and footwear, road transport, betting, the third sector, education and early years as well as the self-employed.

The General Federation of Workers Trade Unions in Bahrain(Formerly known as the General Committee for Bahrain Workers) (GFWTUB) is a national trade union federation in Bahrain. It was established in 2002, by the Workers Trade Union Law granting workers the right to organize collectively.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">RENGO</span> National trade union center in Japan

The Japanese Trade Union Confederation (JTUC), commonly known as RENGO, is the largest national trade union center in Japan, with over six million members as of 2011. It was founded in 1989 as a result of the merger of the Japan Confederation of Labor (Domei), the Federation of Independent Unions (Churitsuroren) and the National Federation Of Industrial Organisations (Shinsambetsu). In 1990, the General Council of Trade Unions of Japan (Sohyo) also joined RENGO.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Union of Namibian Workers</span> Trade union center of Namibia

The National Union of Namibian Workers (NUNW) is one of three national trade union centers in Namibia. It was established in 1970 and is affiliated with SWAPO, Namibia's ruling political party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Federation of Unions of South Africa</span> Trade union in South Africa

The Federation of Unions of South Africa (FEDUSA) is the second largest national trade union center in South Africa.

The National Trade Union Centre of Trinidad and Tobago (NATUC) is a trade union federation 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 100,000.

Trade unions in Ghana first emerged in the 1920s and played an important role in the country's economy and politics ever since.

The Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan Latino organization affiliated with the AFL-CIO and the Change to Win federation. It was founded in 1972 to provide Latino trade union members in the United States with a more effective voice within the AFL-CIO, to encourage Latino participation in the democratic process, and to encourage the organization of Latino workers into labor unions.

The trade unions of Tanzania have a total membership of approximately 370,000. 350,000 of these belong to the Trade Union Congress of Tanzania, another 15,000 to the Zanzibar Trade Union Congress, and 2,400 are members of the Tanzania Fishing Crew and Allied Workers’ Union.

The South African Trades Union Congress (TUC) was a national trade union federation in South Africa.

References

  1. ↑ Al-Hourani, Hani (2001). The Jordanian labour movement: history, structure and challenges. FES. Retrieved 20 April 2021.
  2. ↑ "General Federation of Jordanian Trade Unions". Guide to Civil Society in Jordan. Jordan Labor Watch. Retrieved 20 April 2021.
  3. ↑ Al-Hourani, Hani (2001). The Organizational Structure of the Jordanian Labour Movement. FES. Retrieved 25 April 2021.
  4. 1 2 Phenix Center for Economics & Informatics Studies (2012). "Freedom of association in Jordan: "The new trade unions: controversy of legitimacy" (PDF). FES. Amman: Friedrich Ebert Foundation. Retrieved 20 April 2021.
  5. ↑ Tula, Connell (15 May 2013). "JORDANIAN UNIONS ESTABLISH INDEPENDENT FEDERATION". Solidarity Center. Solidarity Center. Retrieved 20 April 2021.
  6. ↑ Phenix Center for Economics & Informatics Studies (2012). "Freedom of association in Jordan: "The new trade unions: controversy of legitimacy" (PDF). FES. Amman: Friedrich Ebert Foundation. Retrieved 20 April 2021.
  7. ↑ Al-Hourani, Hani (2001). The Jordanian labour movement: history, structure and challenges. FES. Retrieved 20 April 2021.
  8. ↑ "Freedom of association in Jordan "The new trade unions, controversy of legitimacy" (PDF). FES. Friedrich Ebert Foundation. Retrieved 26 April 2021.

Sources

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.