TITLE:
Trade Union and the Informal Sector in Africa: Cameroon
AUTHORS:
Roger Tsafack Nanfosso
KEYWORDS:
Trade Union, Informal Sector, Informal Unionisation, Negotiations
JOURNAL NAME:
Modern Economy,
Vol.7 No.11,
September
26,
2016
ABSTRACT: Recent history of the trade
union in Africa highlights the fact that they are progressively interested in
organising the informal sector for various reasons. But the congenital
characteristics of the informal economy can appear as challenges to overcome.
The purpose of this paper is then to analyze the relationship between trade
union and the informal sector in Africa, focusing on Cameroon but also in
countries where data and studies are available. In order to do this,
statistical figures and analytical development are used to proceed in two steps.
The first analyzes trade union and informality to check how unions can avoid
the forgetting trap as far as informality is concerned. The idea is to discuss
about the modalities of the organisation of the informal economy and to assess
how the challenges of women and child labour organisations are considered by
traditional trade unions. The second step is then to present how informal
sector tries to take care of itself and to analyze the trade-off between
conventional trade union behaviours and what can be considered as “informal
unionisation” in terms of competition versus complementarity. Indeed one may
suspect some tension between trade unions and the will of informal employers
and informal employees to organise themselves.