Trade unions in Niger are free to engage in regular unionist activities, with constitutionally protected provisions for forming and joining trade unions. However, with 95% the working population engaged in subsistence activities,
the numbers of trade union members are low.
Trade unions
The
Union of Workers' Trade Unions of Niger
The Union of Workers' Trade Unions of Niger (USTN) is a national trade union center in Niger. Formed in 1960 as the ''Union Nationale des Travailleurs du Niger (UNTN)'', the union was renamed in 1978 as the USTN.
The 1988 establishment of the N ...
(USTN) is the largest
trade union
A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ...
centre with a membership of 60,000. The
Democratic Confederation of Workers of Niger (CDTN) was formed in 2001 as a
breakaway union from the USTN. The
Nigerien Confederation of Labour (CNT) is the third largest trade union centre.
Strike actions
2009 Constitutional crisis
On 25 June 2009, the CDTN trade union confederation led a 24-hour general strike across the nation to protest the President's referendum plans, after a previous strike had been indefinitely postponed on 18 June. All seven trade union confederations took part, in the first general strike since the creation of the Fifth Republic in 1999, and the first joint action by all seven major confederations. The organizers provided skeleton staffs of union workers for hospitals, water and electric utilities, and airports.
[Niger president's main ally quits the government]
AFP. 25 June 2009.Niger: grève générale jeudi contre le projet de référendum de M. Tandja
AFP. 24 June 2009.
References
{{Portal, Organized labour