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The Disappearance of Strikes in Tanzania: Incomes Policy and Industrial Democracy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Dudley Jackson
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Extract

During the last few inflation-ridden years many countries have experienced a severe crisis of industrial relations as workers tried, through collective action, to preserve their living standards against the pressure of rising prices. But Tanzania stands as a conspicuous example of one country where, during the 1970s, strikes seem virtually to have disappeared, as may be seen from Table I.1 It is true that the Tanzanian definition of a strike excludes disputes lasting less than one day; and it is also true that there have been occasions since 1972 when workers have ‘downed tools’ for brief protest periods. But the lack of reported strikes in Tanzania is not a statistical illusion. The Labour Officers of the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare keep a close watch on the state of industrial relations, and these occurrences are known to and are reported by them, as is shown by their recording of three strikes in 1977. This last fact also demonstrates that strikes can still occur in Tanzania.

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Articles
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 17 , Issue 2 , June 1979 , pp. 219 - 251
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1979

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References

page 219 note 1 Here, and throughout this article unless otherwise stated, Tanzania refers to the mainland only and so excludes Zanzibar.

page 220 note 1 Bureau of Statistics, Survey of Employment and Earnings, 1973–1974 (Dar es Salaam, 1977),Google Scholar Tables 2 and 5; the parastatal sector includes the Tazara Railway, but in 1969 this had not yet started, and in 1974 most construction work was in Zambia so the employment figures are not unduly affected.

page 220 note 2 Sources: Tanganyika, , Annual Report of the Labour Department (Dar es Salaam) from 1949,Google Scholar the first year in which were recorded ‘details of all stoppages of work, of however minor a nature’, until 1959; Annual Report of the Labour Division (Dar es Salaam) from 1960 to 1964–1965;Google ScholarI.L.O.Year Book of Labour Statistics (Geneva) for 1974 and 1978;Google Scholar and the Ministry of Labour.

page 221 note 1 Bureau of Statistics, 1967 Population Census (Dar es Salaam, 1975), Vol. 4, pp. 310–11.Google Scholar

page 221 note 2 Bureau of Statistics, 1969 Household Budget Survey (Dar es Salaam, 1972), Vol. 1, Table 6.1, p. 26.Google Scholar

page 221 note 3 Source: Bureau of Statistics, National Accounts of Tanzania, 1966–1974 (Dar es Salaam, 1977), Table 17, p. 28.Google Scholar

page 222 note 1 Sources: Bureau of Statistics, Employment and Earnings in Tanganyika (Dar es Salaam), 1964, 1966, and 1967;Google ScholarSurvey of Employment and Earnings, 1969, 1971, and 1973–1974; and Hali ya Uchumi wa Taifa katika Mwaka, 1977–78 (Dar es Salaam, 1978), Table 22, p. 45.Google Scholar

page 223 note 1 Sources: Bureau of Statistics, Quarterly Statistical Bulletin (Dar es Salaam), 12 1970 and 09 1975,Google Scholar with recent figures supplied directly by the Bureau of Statistics, and also Table 3.

page 223 note 2 According to M. A. Bienefeld: ‘When faced with the renewed wave of strikes in 1962 the Government moved on two fronts. It passedyy legislation which virtually outlawed the strike as a bargaining weapon, and with the unions disarmed in this way, it proceeded to usurp their place by providing workers with sizeable benefits through legislation. Substantial increases in minimum wages, affecting large numbers, came into effect on January first, 1963, and within little more than a year legislation had been passed providing employees with job security, severance pay, a National Provident Fund and other benefits.’ A General Theory of Trade Union Development: some lessons from Tanzania, University of Dar es Salaam, Economic Research Bureau Paper, 07 1972, p. 13.Google Scholar

page 224 note 1 There is a brief discussion of the mutiny in Friedland, William H., Vuta Kamba: the development of trade unions in Tanganyika (Stanford, 1969), pp. 126–31 and 148–53,Google Scholar and a lengthier dissertation by Tumbo, N. S. K., ‘Towards N.U.T.A.: the search for permanent unity in Tanganyika's trade union movement’, University College, Dar es Salaam, 03 1969, published in Labour in Tanzania (Dar es Salaam, 1977).Google Scholar As many as 28 trade unionists were also detained after the suppression of the mutiny; see Bienen, Henry, Tanzania: party transformation and economic development (Princeton, 1967),Google Scholar ch. XI. Bienefeld, op. cit. p. 15, believes that the move to create N.U.T.A. ‘was possible because the Government had through its legislative programme established itself as a credible representative of the workmen, because the deposed leadership did have relatively few roots in the movement it led, and finally because that movement itself was weak and lacked cohesion.’ In February 1978, N.U.T.A. adopted a new constitution and changed its name to Jumuiya Ya Wafanyakazi Wa Tanzania, abbreviated J.U.W.A.T.A., the Tanzania Workers' Organisation (‘The Rules of the Tanzania Workers' Organisation with Background Material and an Introduction’, Jackson, Dudley, The University of Aston Management Centre Working Paper Series, No. 127, 02 1979,Google Scholar provides a translation of the new rules and constitution). The name of the Tanganyika African National Union has also been changed to Chama Cha Mapinduzi, the Party of the Revolution.

page 225 note 1 Source: Ministry of Communications, Transport and Labour, Annual Report of the Labour Division, 1964/1965 (Dar es Salaam, 1969), Appendix III, Table 5, p. 73.Google Scholar

page 225 note 2 Namely: (1) Agricultural Workers; (2) Transport and General Workers; (3) Central Government Workers; (4) Local Government Workers; (5) Domestic and Hotel Workers; (6) Dock Workers and Seafarers; (7) Teachers; (8) Mine and Quarry Workers; (9) East African Community, sub-divided into: (a) Railway Workers, (b) Postal Workers, and (c) General Fund Service. N.U.T.A. also had ten Regional Centres and 41 Branch Offices, as well as Education, Publicity, and Research Sections. NUTA: What it is: What it does: How it works (Dar es Salaam, n.d.), a pamphlet written by A. C. Tandau, the Deputy General Secretary, pp. 12–15.Google Scholar

page 230 note 1 The various forms of notification were statutorily prescribed; Ministry of Labour, The Security of Employment Act, No. 62 of 1964: a guide to the Disciplinary Code (Dar es Salaam, 1965), pp. 17–30.Google Scholar See also Government Notice No. 155 of 1965: ‘The Security of Employment (Establishment of Conciliation Boards) Order, 1965’, which came into effect on 1st May 1965 and established a Conciliation Board in each District.

page 231 note 1 Report to the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania on Wages, Incomes and Prices Policy by the International Labour Office, published as Government Paper No. 3 of 1967, prepared by Professor H. A. Turner of the University of Cambridge; also Wages, Incomes, Rural Development, Investment and Price Policy, Government Paper No. 4 of 1967.

page 232 note 1 Not all trade disputes concerned pay. Those concerning dismissals of higher-paid, management staff, not covered by the (amended) Security of Employment Act, 1964, came immediately before the P.L.T.; see Nyalali, F. L., Aspects of Industrial Conflict: a case study of trade disputes in Tanzania, 1967–1973 (Nairobi, 1975).Google Scholar

page 236 note 1 Bureau of Statistics, Analysis of Accounts of Parastatals, 1966–1975 (Dar es Salaam, 1977), Tables 1 and 2 (corrected for misprints in 1972), pp. 2–3;Google Scholar and Hali ya Uchumi wa Taifa katika Mwaka, 1977–78 (Dar es Salaam, 1978), Table 31, p. 54.Google Scholar

page 236 note 2 The Gazette of the United Republic of Tanzania, 22 September 1967, included the following definition: ‘A parastatal organisation is not an integral part of the Government, but an institution, organisation or agency which is wholly or mainly financed or owned and controlled by the Government. The criterion of such public enterprises would be ownership by the Government of 50 per cent or more of the capital shares, or other forms of governmental participation and effective influence in all the main aspects of management of the enterprise’.

This definition may be compared with that used by the Bureau of Statistics: ‘commercial enterprises owned by the Government or with majority Government participation…run on commercial principles and whose accounts are not directly integrated into the Government Budgets’; Analysis of Accounts of Parastatals, 1966–1975 (Dar es Salaam, 1977), p. 2.Google Scholar

page 237 note 1 The approval of S.C.O.P.O. had to be obtained before a civil servant could be transferred, rents had to be paid for housing on a scale relating to salary, and no cars or domestic servants were to be provided; for the current rent payments, see Directive No. 12: House Rents, 15 February 1973 and the Daily News Tanzania Dar es Salaam), 16 02 1973.Google Scholar

page 237 note 2 S.C.O.P.O., Directive No. 3: Salary Scales in the Parastatal Sector, 08 1968,Google Scholar and Application of Directive No. 3: Salary Scales in the Parastatal Sector, 21 July 1969.

page 237 note 3 S.C.O.P.O., Further to Directive No 3: the Statutory Minimum Wage, 4 09 1972, para. 2Google Scholar.

page 238 note 1 Presidential Circular No. 1 of 1970, reprinted in Mapolu, Henry (ed.), Workers and Management (Dar es Salaam, 1976), pp. 153–8.Google Scholar All the quotations are from this Circular.

page 240 note 1 Maseko, I. J., ‘Workers' Participation: the case of Friendship Textile Mill and Tanesco’, in Mapolu, Henry (ed.), Workers and Management (Dar es Salaam, 1976), Tanzanian Studies No. 4, PP. 228–58.Google Scholar

page 241 note 1 ‘Directorship in Public Corporations, Authorities, Holding Companies, and Companies, and Subsidiary Companies of Corporations, Authorities and Holding Companies’, 12 December 1974 para. 6.

page 241 note 2 Ibid. para. 7.

page 241 note 3 Ibid.

page 244 note 1 See the Daily News Tanzania, 3 November 1972, from which this account is largely drawn.

page 245 note 1 Daily News Tanzania, 9 August 1972.

page 245 note 2 Ibid. 30 March 1973.

page 246 note 1 The formula for the total amount of bonus is as follows:

It should be noted that if achieved productivity is below the target (which to be registered at all must represent a 5 per cent increase in productivity on the best year), then obviously no bonus application can be made.

page 248 note 1 Sources: Wages Regulations Orders. See Jackson, Dudley, ‘The Disappearance of Strikes in Tanzania: incomes policy and industrial democracy’, The University of Aston Management Centre Working Paper Series, No. 117, 11 1978, Table 13.Google Scholar

page 249 note 1 Sources: Table 4 and S.C.O.P.O. Directives of August 1968, 25 July 1969, and 1 May 1974. The complete pay scales are given in Jackson, op. cit. Table 15.