Recent work on transnational corporations in Africa has largely focused on questions related to tax evasion, distribution of benefits, local content, land rights, and the adverse effects on local communities and the environment. There has been less attention to how transnational corporations relate to workers’ unions. Historically, workers’ unions have been central civil society actors in some European and African countries. In Norway, unions have played an important role in ensuring that the oil resources benefit Norwegian citizens.
The main objective of this paper is to examine the way Statoil (recently renamed Equinor), a Norwegian petroleum company, relates to unions in their operations abroad, with a specific focus on Tanzania. The paper builds on more than 30 in-depth interviews with Statoil staff in Norway and Tanzania, national union leadership in both countries, as well as other stakeholders, in the period 2015-2018.
The Norwegian government holds 67% of the shares in Statoil/Equinor. By Norwegian law, unions are represented in company boards. Moreover, Statoil was reportedly the first company in the world to have a global framework agreement with the global union Industry All. In Tanzania, workers’ associations played a central role in the struggle for independence, but during the one party era (1967-1992) all unions were put under the control of the ruling party, and reportedly remain so today. Trust in unions, and union membership, is presently very low. In recent years, an independent split union for mine and energy workers, National Union of Mine and Energy Workers (NUMET), has been formed.
The paper details the initial resistance from Statoil/Equinor’s Tanzanian staff to unionize, the company’s active encouragement of the staff to do so, and Statoil/Equinor’s active sponsorship of union work. The paper argues that as long as the company envisaged having more than 3000 employees within a short time, they saw a clear business case for union work, wishing to replicate the “Norwegian model”, but as the investment decision was postponed, this engagement cooled down.
Statoil/Equinor and Industri Energi’s experiences with support to union work in other African countries is mixed. In Angola, the workers felt that Industri Energi was too close to the company to be trusted as independent. In Nigeria, Industri Energi initially supported union work, but found that the situation, with rival unions, made collaboration difficult.
It is naïve to believe that the tripartite collaboration between companies, workers and government that has proved so successful in Norway can be exported to African countries. However, international finance institutions and African governments should pay more attention to the potential positive role that unions can play in the context of international investments.