NUMSA strike forces First Battery to review retrenchments

For 125 workers at First Battery’s East London plant, the retrenchment letter was blunt: a standard severance package, a fixed date, and little room for negotiations with the union.

However, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), which represents the majority of the plant’s workforce and an IndustriALL affiliate, immediately issued a 48-hour strike notice on 2 July. Seventeen days later, on 22 July, First Battery’s owner, Metair, signed a memorandum of agreement. This document improved the terms workers had been offered and committed management to review how retrenchment selections were made.

The revised package improves the retrenchment terms. Severance rises to three weeks’ pay per completed year of service for the first six years and one week thereafter, on top of a R70 000 (US $4292) ex-gratia lump sum for every retrenched worker. Workers will remain on the books and receive full pay until 31 July. In addition, they are entitled to pro-rata bonuses, accumulated leave, long-service awards and severance pay. Metair has committed to speeding up these payments.

Two provisions reach beyond the immediate retrenchments. First, management must investigate specific grievances about how workers were selected for the cut, including the application of “last-in, first-out” principles and claims that skills-retention criteria were not done fairly. Second, should the company contemplate further job cuts after a two-month operational review, it is bound to offer any future voluntary severance process on the same improved terms as per memorandum of understanding.

The agreement also commits senior Metair leadership to a two-day workers’ indaba(conference) with NUMSA. Ideally, the meeting will take place over a weekend so as not to disrupt production. At the conference, the company will set out its strategy and hear proposals from the shop floor. There is also the possibility of an external facilitator.

With the settlement signed, NUMSA suspended the strike and workers returned to normal shifts by 23 July. Those who returned by that date qualified for a R2,000 (US$123) advance to cover transport costs. As majority representative at the plant, NUMSA’s agreement binds all affected workers as per Labour Relations Act. This applies regardless of individual union membership.

NUMSA general secretary, Irvin Jim, said the outcome is a result of collective action.

“Through the unified, militant action of workers, combined with unwavering solidarity, together we have forced management to concede,”

he said, adding that the union “will fight relentlessly to defend and advance the interests of the working class.”

“We support NUMSA for fighting for jobs. Saving jobs is critical at this moment when South Africa’s automotive component sector is under sustained pressure from weak domestic demand, competition from imported parts and the slow pace of local value addition,”

said IndustriALL Sub-Saharan Africa regional secretary, Paule-France Ndessomin.

African mining unions launch network to defend workers’ rights

On 27 July, more than 50 delegates from 12 African countries agreed during an online meeting to build a common platform for mining unions. Trade unions in mining still organize mainly within national borders. Mining companies, by contrast, operate across borders with ease.

AMNet priorities

According to discussions in the meeting, AMNet will build union power through regional and global organizing including union-to-union solidarity and commodity-based company networks. It will also defend workers against precarious work, promote freedom of association, collective bargaining and living wages. The network will confront casualisation, subcontracting and migrant-labour exploitation. Further, it will advance a Just Transition in coal and critical mineral regions through reskilling, social protection and worker participation.

Further, it will hold capital accountable through due diligence frameworks and coordinated campaigns against multinationals that violate workers and human rights. AMNet will carry this mandate through research, organizing and policy advocacy. The network will engage with governments, the African Union, regional economic communities and multilateral development banks.

Participants identified precarious contracts, weak health and safety enforcement and the growing footprint of Chinese mining firms as challenges no single IndustriALL Global Union affiliate can tackle alone. They also highlighted the increasing demand for critical minerals caused by the global energy transition including copper, cobalt, lithium, platinum group metals and rare earth elements.

The Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia dominate global cobalt production, while South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Botswana and Ghana anchor platinum, lithium, diamond and gold value chains. Additionally, the Simandou iron ore project in Guinea has the largest high grade iron ore project globally. Yet pressure to extract quickly rather than beneficiate, create decent jobs and tax fairly is sacrificing workers’ rights and risking Africa’s lock-in to low-value extraction while decarbonization gains accrue elsewhere.

Precarious work, critical minerals and mine safety

The meeting stated that Africa supplies the raw materials for global decarbonization but remains largely confined to extraction, with limited industrial upgrading and weak links to domestic transformation. This enclave model creates mineral wealth with few spillovers into jobs or diversification. Subcontracting, labour broking and informalization have further eroded standard employment relationships and weakened collective bargaining, while artisanal and small-scale mining remains largely informal.

Health and safety risks remain severe, especially in underground and poorly regulated operations. Ratification and enforcement of the ILO Safety and Health in Mines Convention (C176) are uneven, leaving African mineworkers exposed to fatalities, injuries, and occupational disease.

The meeting heard that multinational corporations still dominate production and value distribution. Voluntary ESG and human rights due diligence frameworks have had limited impact, particularly where enforcement is weak and binding accountability is absent.

Multilateral development banks financing mining infrastructure and green-transition reforms have adopted Just Transition language, but their investment-friendly approaches sometimes violate workers’ rights where labour flexibility is treated as a condition for capital.

These concerns echoed IndustriALL’s 2025 Sydney global mining conference, which called for stronger organizing across multinationals, sharper Just Transition frameworks, better safety and firmer supply-chain accountability.

Leadership structure and regional organizing

The proposed AMNet leadership includes two co-chairs and a secretary. It also includes Francophone and North Africa representatives and a representative for women and youth, with thematic subcommittees to follow.

Speakers argued that the network needs leaders who are able to engage governments and multinationals directly. Delegates also agreed to organize around focused themes, rather than try to cover every issue at once.

“Africa could control a significant share of global platinum supply if the continent organized to capture the value, for example, in South Africa and Zimbabwe’s platinum resources rather than simply exporting the ore,”

said Mpho Phakedi, general secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers.

Platinum and diamond supply-chain accountability

Participants agreed that the network success will be case based. The first is Impala Platinum’s supply chain, which runs from mines in Zimbabwe and South Africa to Volkswagen factories in Germany. Unions plan to use that chain as leverage, working with the Human Rights Due Diligence Competence Centre and German supply-chain law to seek remedy where violations are found.

The second is diamonds. An August meeting in Botswana will examine the global diamond sector, with producers such as De Beers invited, as affiliates build a collective union response to market volatility affecting cutters and miners. On health and safety, affiliates continue collecting country-level data to give the network’s arguments an evidence base.

“This is an important network which must be a platform for building trade union power: defending workers’ rights, building union strength, holding capital accountable and shaping a Just Transition that works for Africa’s mineworkers,”

said Kemal Ozkan, IndustriALL assistant general secretary.

Zimbabwe: Supreme Court reinstates 135 sacked Waverley Blankets workers

In December 2023, the Harare-based blanket and bedding manufacturing company told workers to sign fixed-term contracts or face termination. The workers rejected the move, arguing that it violated Zimbabwe’s Labour Act and stripped them of hard-won job security.

With support from the Zimbabwe Textile Workers Union (ZTWU), an affiliate of IndustriALL Global Union, the workers challenged the Waverley Blankets dismissals through arbitration and the courts. After setbacks, the union won the case on appeal at the Supreme Court.

Matika, Gwisai and Partners, the union’s lawyers, argued that an employer cannot use a waiver to take away workers’ rights and that any termination of employment must comply with Zimbabwean labour laws. They also argued that the workers never agreed to have their permanent contracts replaced with fixed-term contracts.

The court challenge was supported by IndustriALL.

Waverley Blankets dismissals pushed workers into hardship

For Emmanuel Chadiwa, the Waverley union chairperson who had worked at the company as a mechanic since 2010, the dismissal pushed his family into crisis.

“I last reported for work on 15 January 2024, when security guards told us not to enter the company gate. We returned the next day hoping the company would allow us back, but nothing changed. That is when we realised our fight for justice would take a long time,”

said Chadiwa.

“Life became very difficult. I had children in school and no money for exam and school fees. I survived by doing piece jobs offloading trucks, sometimes earning only US$10 a week, a fraction of the US$340 I earned monthly on the shop floor. It was painful.”

“As a worker with a disability, losing my job changed my life for the worse. I was pushed into poverty and uncertainty, surviving on small piece jobs and living off the streets,”

said Matthew Ngwaru, former union vice chairperson at Waverley who has been with the company since 2009.

Supreme Court victory restores workers’ income and dignity

Munyaradzi Jaricha, who worked as an internal security officer, said:

“Winning this case means justice has been done after the unfair dismissal we suffered. For over a year, we struggled with no income, but this victory gives us hope and proves that workers’ rights can be protected when workers stand together with their union.”

“Since 16 December 2023, I have been doing odd jobs and vending to feed my family. Without a stable salary, it has been difficult to pay rent and meet basic needs.”

“The dismissal affected my family badly. We struggled to put food on the table daily. This victory brings relief because it means we may get our jobs back and provide for our families again.”

Norman Makono, ZTWU general secretary, said the Supreme Court ruling was a victory for justice and workers’ rights:

“Workers are celebrating this court victory while waiting for Waverley to inform them of the return-to-work date.”

Atle Høie, IndustriALL general secretary, said:

“This is a powerful reminder that employers cannot simply dismiss workers with impunity. We applaud ZTWU for standing firm in defending workers’ rights. It is however scandalous that the fees for bringing a case to the Supreme Court are so high that it is almost impossible for unions to do so.”

Union opposes De Beers plans to retrench 1,214 workers

Venetia is South Africa’s largest diamond mine, producing roughly four-fifths of the country’s output. On 14 July, De Beers and its local sales arm, De Beers Sightholder Sales South Africa (DBSSSA), issued a Section 189A notice announcing the two-year production pause. NUM, an IndustriALL Global Union affiliate, is fighting the move, calling it a devastating blow to workers, families and the communities built around the mine in Limpopo province.

Section 189A of the Labour Relations Act requires employers to consult formally with unions before large-scale retrenchments. NUM says De Beers is treating this as a formality rather than genuine negotiation, presenting a downturn it has long known about as a sudden emergency.

Masibulele Naki, NUM’s national health and safety secretary and chief negotiator for the diamond sector, said jobs should not be sacrificed whenever a company comes under economic pressure and that section 189A exists to explore alternatives, not rubber-stamp a decision already made.

Alternatives on the table

NUM wants De Beers and DBSSSA to exhaust several measures before cutting jobs: retraining and upskilling, temporary job-preservation arrangements, cuts to non-essential expenditure and a review of executive and management costs. The union argues workers’ pay is not the source of the company’s difficulties, and should not be sacrificed to protect profits and executive benefits.

NUM also suspects the production pause could become cover for replacing permanent workers with cheaper, less unionized contract labour once operations resume — a tactic increasingly used by mining companies to cut costs.

NUM says it will participate fully in the statutory consultation while calling on the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources and the Department of Employment and Labour to intervene.

“Workers’ wages, jobs and livelihoods cannot become the first target whenever management seeks to cut costs,” said Masibulele Naki.

Paule-France Ndessomin, IndustriALL regional secretary for Sub-Saharan Africa, said:

“Diamond market pressures cannot be used to push workers into poverty. Venetia’s workers deserve a fair process that protects their livelihoods.”

Diamond market under pressure

The global diamond industry faces an acute structural crisis. Between 2015 and 2025 the natural diamond market fell 16 per cent in volume and 33 per cent in value, driven by a flood of cheaper lab-grown diamonds mass-produced in China and India; natural diamond prices have fallen roughly 30 per cent since 2022. Industry responses, including the Luanda Accord’s coordinated marketing fund and calls for mandatory “synthetic” labelling, have yet to stop the decline.

The Luanda Accord was signed on 18 June 2025 in Angola’s capital by a coalition of African producer governments — Angola, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo — alongside De Beers, the African Diamond Producers Association (ADPA), the Antwerp World Diamond Centre, India’s Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council and the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre. Signatories commit to allocating 1 per cent of annual rough diamond sales revenue to the Natural Diamond Council to fund a global marketing campaign for natural diamonds.

South Africa: First Battery workers strike over retrenchments

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), an IndustriALL Global Union affiliate, called for the strike after First Battery retrenched workers at plants in Benoni, East London, Cape Town and Durban, despite months of consultations aimed at avoiding job losses.

According to NUMSA, First Battery lost major contracts with vehicle assemblers in South Africa and no longer supplies BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Ford or Toyota. Instead of winning back that business through local investment, the union says the company is importing batteries from Germany for BMW rather than upgrading local production to meet automakers’ needs.

NUMSA argues that importing batteries undermines South Africa’s Automotive Masterplan 2035, which targets 60 per cent local content in the automotive industry by 2035. The current local content is about 38 per cent.

The union accused First Battery of wasteful expenditure and of withholding information needed for meaningful consultation under South African labour laws. NUMSA says the company refused to disclose key cost data, including executive pay, electricity costs, and original equipment manufacturer contract terms.

First Battery has offered retrenched workers a severance package of R10,000 (US$616), while NUMSA is demanding R200,000 (US$12,319). The union says the gap shows the company can afford better terms than what it is offering. NUMSA has also criticized Metair for refusing to meet the union before the retrenchments took effect. The union is seeking assistance from the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) to agree on strike-picketing rules after management warnings on possible victimisation of striking workers through disciplinary action.

NUMSA cited Goodyear’s closure of its local tyre-manufacturing plant last year, while retaining its distribution network, as part of a broader pattern it wants regulators to address. The union called on the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition to consider tariffs and import duties to protect South African manufacturers and jobs.

Further, NUMSA wants First Battery to withdraw the retrenchment notices, disclose more financial and strategic information and return to negotiations. The union says talks must include a joint approach to the CCMA and the Unemployment Insurance Fund for a temporary lay-off scheme that would keep workers employed while alternatives are explored.

Irvin Jim, NUMSA general secretary, said:

“There is absolutely no reason why workers should be thrown into the streets to join the sea of poverty, unemployment, and inequality. The least First Battery could have done is to agree with the Union and make an offer of a decent package targeting workers closer to retirement in some companies.”

“In a country where unemployment is high, retrenchments should be a last resort. IndustriALL supports job preservation and encourages employers to negotiate in good faith,”

said Paule-France Ndessomin, IndustriALL regional secretary for Sub-Saharan Africa.

According to Statistics South Africa the expanded unemployment rate which includes discouraged job seekers is 43.7 per cent or 13 million people.

South African autoworkers strike over wages at BAIC plant

Workers were originally employed at Skill Level 1 of the National Bargaining Forum, the industry’s collective bargaining platform, entitling them to R121 (US$7.30) an hour. In June 2025, BAIC laid off workers, citing a plant refurbishment. When they returned two months later, their hourly rate had been cut to R48 (US$2.90).

Specialized artisans like spray painters now earn R84 (US$5.07) an hour and CO2 welders R48 (US$2.90), against a sectoral entry rate of R163.24 (US$9.85) and a qualified rate of R180.53 (US$10.90).

NUMSA is demanding both rates be restored, alongside back-pay and allowances for workers who have acted as team leaders, in some cases for over six months, without formal appointment.

BAIC must respect industry wage agreements

Underlying the wage dispute are NUMSA’s demands that BAIC align with the conditions observed by every other original equipment manufacturer (OEM) operating in South Africa. The union wants weekly pay moved from Friday to Wednesday, so that workers are not left stranded over long weekends and public holidays, contract workers employed for more than three months be made permanent, and graduates of the government’s Youth Employment Service learnership scheme be absorbed into permanent jobs once their training ends.

“BAIC must fall in line with every other OEM. No exceptions, no shortcuts on benefits,” said Mziyanda Twani, NUMSA’s Eastern Cape regional secretary.

Paule-France Ndessomin, IndustriALL’s regional secretary for Sub-Saharan Africa, added: “Industry bargaining is a pillar of labour relations in South Africa. BAIC must not knock it down through low wages.”

Flagship fails to meet expectations

In 2016, the Beijing-based group struck a joint venture with the state-owned Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), taking a 65 per cent stake against the IDC’s 35 per cent, to build an R12.6 billion (US$764 million) assembly plant in the Coega zone outside Gqeberha.

The plant was meant to produce up to 100,000 vehicles a year, create 10,000 jobs, and anchor BAIC’s ambitions across Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and beyond.

Sales volumes have remained low. BAIC has since pinned its hopes on the X55 SUV and, more recently, the B30, while signalling plans to expand the Coega facility despite American tariff pressures on global trade.

Chinese cars, led by Great Wall Motors’ Haval brand and Chery, have become a fixture on South African roads. In the first quarter of 2026, combined sales of Chinese-built vehicles were 16094, with the brands now ranking among the country’s top three best-sellers.

Their advance has been built on competitive pricing and improving specification at a time when high interest rates and weak real-wage growth have squeezed South African consumers’ budgets.

Shutterstock image of Baic,Logo

Nigerian unions develop strong plan to build worker power at Dangote

The agenda includes mapping the workforce across Africa and mounting organising campaigns. Unions will also monitor labour rights abuses and develop common demands around collective bargaining, workplace safety, freedom of association and social dialogue.

The unions were the National Union of Petroleum & Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE), Petroleum & Natural Gas Senior Staff Association (PENGASSAN), Chemical and Non-Metallic Products Senior Staff Association (CANMPSSAN) and the National Union of Textile Garment and Tailoring Workers (NUTGTW).

Unions fight back

The meeting follows years of documented exploitation across the Dangote Group. Casual and contract workers receive lower wages and fewer protections than permanent staff. Health and safety standards are poor and the group refuses meaningful collective bargaining even where unions are organized.

In September 2025, the US$20 billion Dangote Refinery on the outskirts of Lagos dismissed 800 workers the day after they joined PENGASSAN. Management attributed the dismissals to a restructuring prompted by alleged acts of sabotage, while unions called it victimisation.

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) sided with the unions. NLC president, Joe Ajaero, accused Dangote of forcing workers into company-controlled unions, violating their freedom of association and undermining collective bargaining. The NLC accused Dangote of breaching Nigerian law and ILO Conventions 87 and 98, both ratified by Nigeria, which guarantee freedom of association and the right to organize.

The move is significant given the Dangote Group’s expanding footprint across Africa. Its operations include petroleum refining and cement plants in Ethiopia, Senegal, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The group also runs a fertiliser complex exporting across the continent and has ambitions in power generation. The group employs tens of thousands of workers across Nigeria and has operations in more than a dozen African countries. Yet for many of those workers, the right to join a union has remained violated.

The company network will bring together unions organising across Dangote’s African operations. It will facilitate information-sharing and mutual solidarity. The network will also support campaigns in countries where the group is newer and union presence is thinner.

Oluchi Amaogu, NUPENG assistant general secretary, said:

“We are stronger when we stand together. This meeting marks an important step towards building a united trade union voice across Dangote operations. Through solidarity, organisation and determination we can strengthen workers’ rights and ensure that growth and development deliver benefits for working people.”

Tom Grinter, IndustriALL director for chemicals and pharmaceuticals, pulp and paper, rubber and materials, said:

“The Dangote Group is an industrial conglomerate that spans the continent and cannot be allowed to violate workers’ rights. This is why unions are jointly organizing.”

Mauritius garment maker out of style on migrant workers’ rights

Fashion Heights, an international franchise with over 40 stores on the island, which sells branded garments, shoes and accessories, is facing serious allegations of workers’-rights violations. These allegations arose after dismissed workers raised complaints with CTSP.

The CTSP, an IndustriALL affiliate, runs the Migrant Resource Centre in Port Louis. This centre is renowned for fighting for the rights of migrant workers from countries that include Madagascar, Bangladesh, India, and Nepal. Recently, they have also supported workers from the Philippines.

Dismissed, unpaid and forced to leave

On 9 January, the workers were dismissed during their probationary period. Their termination letters acknowledged obligations by the employer to pay final salaries, notice pay and outstanding overtime.

According to the CTSP, the workers have since left the country without getting paid, despite repeated follow-ups with the ministry. During their last days in Mauritius, the workers had no wages coming in. Moreover, employer-provided accommodation was withdrawn and workers were left to rely on friends and informal support networks for food and shelter.

Twenty other Filino workers continue to work under exploitation for fear of being forced to leave Mauritius and having their passports red marked. This red mark means they will not be allowed to visit Mauritius in the future. CTSP describes these violations as modern slavery.

Workers employed at Fashion Heights say they were routinely made to work between 10-12 hours a day. Hours rose to around 14 in mid-December when business was at its peak. They received no overtime pay for those extra hours, which is in breach of Section 24 of the Workers’ Rights Act 2019. The complaints have also been taken to the ministry of labour.

Further, the workers say the company held onto their passports and identity documents, limiting free movement. Requests for annual and sick leave were refused or discouraged, contrary to Sections 45 and 46 of the same Act. Also, payslips were not provided, making it impossible for workers to verify whether their wages, which are subject to deductions for food and accommodation, were correctly calculated.

Complaints can lead to repatriation

The six workers formally lodged complaints. Several continued in their jobs for fear of losing income, accommodation and of jeopardizing their immigration status. One worker says she was told that complaining could result in repatriation and the loss of employer-provided housing.

Under the Non-Citizens (Employment Restriction Act 1973), a migrant worker’s right to remain in Mauritius is tied to their employer. Losing a job can mean losing a home and a legal right to stay on the island. CTSP argues that this dependency gives corrupt employers an excuse to violate workers’ rights that are protected by the law.

Reeaz Chuttoo, CTSP president said:

“It seems that labour standards exist only on paper for migrant workers. But the union will fight to make them exist in practice by campaigning for the enforcing of the Workers’ Rights Act.”

Paule-France Ndessomin, IndustriALL regional secretary for Sub-Saharan Africa added:

“Mauritius markets itself as a rule-of-law business hub. But this is not the reality for migrant workers. International and national labour standards must be implemented to end migrant worker exploitation.”

Trade unions demand a voice in Africa’s industrial future

Presidential panel

The annual meetings also gave neighbouring heads of state a platform for bilateral talks. Presidents Denis Sassou N’Guesso, Faustin-Archange Toudera and Brice Oligui Nguema, of the Republic of Congo, Central African Republic and Gabon respectively, used the occasion to advance discussions on economic co-operation, renewable energy and regional integration.

A delegation comprising representatives, from IndustriALL Global Union Sub-Saharan Africa, the International Trade Union Confederation Africa (ITUC-Africa) and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Trade Union Competence Centre for Sub-Saharan Africa, called on the AfDB to embed the ILO decent work agenda items like job creation, rights at work, social protection and social dialogue into every project the bank finances.

They also demanded stronger enforcement of the bank’s existing labour safeguards, which already oblige borrowers to comply with ILO core labour standards, protect workers’ rights, maintain occupational health and safety protections and extend those obligations to subcontracted workers. On paper, the framework exists. In practice, unions argue, it is implemented inconsistently.

The delegation also backed formal integration of economic, social and governance (ESG) criteria into lending decisions, a position that aligns with AfDB president Sidi Ould Tah’s own strategy, which includes harnessing Africa’s demographic dividend as one of his four cardinal priorities. With the continent adding roughly 20 million young people to its labour force every year, the unions argued that the decent work agenda is not a distraction from these ambitions but a precondition for them. Africa’s youth bulge needs decent jobs to be created. An industrialization drive that generates precarious employment or suppresses collective bargaining will not create decent work.

Economics of resilience

The AfDB’s chief economist and vice president, Kevin Urama, presented the 2026 African Economic Outlook at the conference. The headline finding that African economies projected to grow at 4.2 per cent in 2026 before rebounding to 4.4 per cent in 2027 told a story of resilience against considerable adversity. At the same time, the broader economic narrative cannot be separated from the African Development Bank’s commitment to supporting decent work principles in member states.

Yet the meetings’ theme, Mobilizing Africa’s development financing at scale in a fragmented world, reflects a sharper external reality: financial resources are tight, official development assistance has declined and supply chains are less predictable. Against this backdrop, the union delegation’s push to embed social standards into the bank’s project pipeline is important. Indeed, driving African Development Bank decent work policies is a vital ingredient of financial resilience.

Unions’ demands on labour standards

One of the unions’ critical engagements was a meeting with Kevin Urama, focused on developing a formal dialogue framework around evidence-based approaches to industrialization. This will provide a mechanism for giving organized labour a voice in how the bank thinks about growth, not just how it implements projects. The importance of African Development Bank decent work initiatives was a central point in these conversations.

The unions were alert to being brought in only at the end of the pipeline. This reflects why African Development Bank decent work must be prioritized earlier in project planning phases.

“We don’t want to be called in through the Independent Review Mechanism of the AfDB when things have gone wrong. We want to be at the table when decisions are being made,”

emphasized Joel Odigie, ITUC-Africa general secretary.

As emphasized, a partnership between African Development Bank and decent work advocates can only strengthen outcomes.

A follow-up meeting is scheduled for July in Abidjan to work through a more substantive engagement framework. The focus will remain on how African Development Bank decent work values can be embedded in ongoing labor dialogues.

Discussions also turned to Mission 300, the joint AfDB and World Bank initiative to connect 300 million Africans to electricity by 2030. Unions questioned whether ambition will be matched by meaningful changes in delivery and raised concerns on privatization and job creation for the youth. Crucially, Mission 300 was framed within the context of African Development Bank decent work goals for job and social outcomes.

A meeting with Francisca Tatchouop Belobe, the African Union commissioner for economic development, trade, tourism, industry and minerals, underscored the strategic importance of beneficiation of critical energy transition minerals and the need for trade unions to engage actively with the African Minerals Development Centre. The green economy’s mineral backbone which includes lithium, cobalt, manganese and graphite is concentrated in Africa and processing those resources locally rather than exporting them raw is one of the most direct routes to creating the quality industrial jobs that young Africans need, argued unions. Equally, African Development Bank decent work priorities support resource beneficiation for local employment.

In parallel civil society meetings the union delegation argued that Just Transition, anchored in the ILO’s Just Transition Guidelines, carries specific obligations: skills retraining, social dialogue, community consultation and equitable distribution of gains from the green economy. For a continent where the median age is under 20, those retraining and skilling provisions are not a safety net for workers being displaced; they are the foundation for a generation entering work for the first time. African Development Bank decent work principles can help ensure this future is equitable and inclusive for all youth.

“The AfDB is Africa’s most powerful development finance catalyst. Decent work must be its compass. This is why we are asking for a formal labour forum,”

said Paule-France Ndessomin, IndustriALL Sub-Saharan Africa regional secretary.

The AfDB was founded in 1964 with 81 member countries and has grown its capital from US$94 billion in 2014 to US$318 billion in 2024.

Botswana diamond firm trampling on workers’ rights

The union, an IndustriALL affiliate, says management is pushing through job cuts while refusing to bargain honestly with unions. Talks collapsed in mid-March. The union is now negotiating under protest as it believes the process is being abused but will not walk away and leave its members unprotected.

Management is hiding the books

At the heart of the dispute is a simple demand: show us the numbers. The union says management has refused to hand over audited accounts, wage records, company structure details and board minutes. Without this information, workers cannot assess whether the job cuts are genuinely necessary or whether alternatives exist. Section 25 of the Trade Unions and Employers Organizations Act requires management to share this information. Genesis HB is not doing so, making meaningful negotiation impossible.

Are union leaders being targeted?

Seven workers face retrenchment. Four of them sit on the union committee. The union believes this is no coincidence. Targeting union representatives to weaken workers’ collective voice is union-busting and it is illegal. The BDWU is putting management on notice that it will not let this stand.

A crisis made worse

The job cuts come at the worst possible time. Botswana’s diamond industry generates roughly 80 per cent of the country’s export earnings and funds a third of government spending and pays for schools, hospitals and public services that millions of Batswana depend on. That industry is now under severe pressure from laboratory-grown diamonds: synthetic stones that are chemically identical to mined gems but cost a fraction of the price. In just a few years they have captured an estimated 15 to 20 per cent of the global jewellery market, hitting hard on demand for natural diamonds.

Even De Beers, one of the most powerful companies in the diamond trade and Botswana’s most important industry partner, recorded a sharp drop in rough diamond sales in 2023 and has started selling laboratory-grown stones itself. This is a clear sign that the industry’s problems are deep and lasting, not temporary. In this climate, every job in the diamond value chain matters. The BDWU says management should be working with workers to find solutions not retrenching them.

What the union is demanding?

The union is calling on Genesis HB to stop the retrenchment process immediately and sit down with workers to develop a fair redundancy policy that genuinely explores alternatives to job losses. If management refuses, the union will take the dispute to the Commissioner of Labour and Social Security or apply to the Industrial Court for an urgent order to halt the process.

Workers will not be silenced

“Genesis HB thinks it can silence workers by targeting union leaders, but the union will fight back,”

said Dominic Mapoka, chairperson of the BDWU.

Paule-France Ndessomin, IndustriALL Sub-Saharan Africa regional secretary, placed the dispute in its wider context.

“Diamond-dependent countries are already bleeding jobs to synthetic stones. Companies that respond by crushing unions are adding injustice to injury. Retrenchments must be handled transparently, in a way that protects both unions and jobs.”