Trade Unions and the Democratic Developmental State in Ethiopia
Studying the relationships and patterns of interactions between state organisations and trade unions in Ethiopia since 1991, this paper explores the role of trade unions in the developmental state project and their ability to represent the interests of labour vis-à-vis the Ethiopian state. It addresses the following questions: How do trade unions in Ethiopia relate to the state and vice-versa? What patterns of interaction can we identify? How does the existing legal and political framework structure the relationship between the Ethiopian state and trade unions?
The Ethiopian “Democratic Developmental State” model and the country’s state-led industrial policies have been the subject of academic investigation (Oqubay 2015; Schaefer and Abebe 2015; Prunier 2007). However, despite the government’s strategic focus on labour intensive manufacturing and agroindustrialisation in its national development plans (Ministry of Finance and Economic Development 2006, 2010; National Planning Commission 2016), few previous studies have touched upon labour issues (Blattman and Dercon 2016) and knowledge about the role of trade unions in the EPRDF’s developmental state project has been scanty (Praeg 2006; Bersoufekad 2003).
Trade union density in Ethiopia has remained low. Although membership grew in numbers, it did not match the large increase of workers employed in the formal sector that accompanied the rapid economic growth Ethiopia experienced over the last two decades (International Labour Office 2013, V). Issues of workers’ rights, occupational health and safety, wages and working conditions emerged, however trade union activism did not become a visible public phenomenon. Although trade unions under the EPRDF have often been portrayed as “co-opted” (Abbink 2017, 312; Brechenmacher 2017), very little has been written about how, if at all, the government achieved control over the unions. Moreover, given that trade unions have been perceived as co-opted, not much focus has been given to analysing government-trade union relations in depth and enquiring to what degree trade unions could and did represent an agenda independent from the government.
I argue that the EPRDF government already in the 1990s established a system of control over labour unions to prevent them from pursuing an independent agenda. Unionisation was encouraged primarily to control workers through government affiliated unions and avoid a radicalisation of the labour movement. Moreover, unions were mobilised to legitimise and support the EPRDF rule, turning them into proponents of the regime. Although control of unions was far reaching, co-optation was not achieved to 100%, providing for some modest conflict between unions and the EPRDF government.
The paper draws on thirteen months of fieldwork carried out in Ethiopia between November 2015 and March 2018. Data was drawn from archival studies, observations and 48 semi-structured and unstructured interviews. Interviewees included employees at the Confederation of Ethiopian Trade Unions, employees at the industrial federations and at basic trade unions, as well as employees at relevant public organisations and labour experts.
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