Chinese employer's contempt for workers' demands at major construction site: On 11 and 12 July, police brutally supressed a strike launched by employees at the Menve'le dam building site. According to the strikers, police fired teargas and live ammunition at the crowd. Ten strikers were reportedly hospitalised, including two women, and several arrests were made. On 17 July, the press covered renewed violence. The striking workers, backed by the Confédération Camerounaise du Travail (CCT), denounced the abuses suffered at the hands of the employer, the Chinese company Sinohydro, including sexual harassment, corruption, unfair dismissals, poor working conditions, etc. According to the employer, only a minority of the 1,448 workers were at the root of the dispute. This show of force nonetheless prompted the Labour and Social Security Minister to intervene personally to secure a pledge from the employer to establish social dialogue and better working conditions.

Anti-union repression in education and health sectors: Health and education sector trade unions denounced the authorities' use of threats, intimidation and repression. In Yaoundé, for example, strike action initiated at two hospitals in June was supressed by the police. In July, Education International (EI) condemned the attacks orchestrated by the gov-ernment against its affiliated organisations. According to the Syndicat National Autonome de l'Enseignement Secondaire (SNAES), the authorities are dismantling education trade unions with strong foundations in order to replace them with more malleable organisations.

Delays in transferring dues to union: The Free Trade Union Confederation of Cameroon, USLC, says employers often delay transferring unions dues, deducted through the check-off system, to the unions, thereby starving them of funds. It also says there has been interference and manipulation in union elections by employers, affecting most recently health workers in Mfoundi, and construction workers employed by Chinese companies.

Anti-union harassment at bank: The USLC reported that members of the financial workers' union FESYLTEFCAM at the multinational ATTIJARIWAFA bank regularly suffer verbal harassment by management, and that there had been several cases in which the union representative had been moved to a different post, without informing the labour inspector. The harassment has been so persistent that the union is thinking of withdrawing from the next union representation elections due to be held in January 2016.

The USLC also reports that there is blatant discrimination in the banking sector in general, with employers usually preferring to deal with only one union and ignoring the rest.

Disclaimer: © ITUC-CSI-IGB 2010

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