Editorial:

Transporters’ trade union leaders: Going to equity with filthy hands

Every human endeavour orbits on transportation. The sick will need transportation to go to hospital; school children will be transported to schools while traders and workers travel daily. There is a popular saying in Cameroon that where a road passes, development follows.

That is the fundamental role of transportation in every society. It is in recognizing the essentiality of transportation that trade unionists are holding the government hostage after the rise in fuel prices. The Guardian Post disagrees with the draconian posture of the unionists in their ongoing negotiations with the government

They have raised taxi fares by some 25 percent while inter-urban transporters have unilaterally increased fares. A trip from Yaounde to Buea has gone up from 4000FCFA to 5000FCFA while the fare from Bamenda to Yaounde has jumped from 5000FCFA to 6000FCFA.  The increase on fuel used by a bus for such trips is 25 000FCFA but a  transporter of a 70 seater-bus clutches an additional 70,000FCFA on fares which adds 45,000FCFA on his profits before the fuel increase.

What do they then want to the bizarre point of threatening a strike to cripple the government? How many of the transporters have increased the salaries of their drivers?  What bonuses do they pay drivers who toil for more than the eight hours per day required by labour regulations? Is the harassment of commercial vehicle drivers on the numerous check points not more harmful to their business than even the increase in fuel prices?

Simen Patrick, the president of the Taxi Drivers’ Union told The Guardian Post that each of the unionists negotiating with government officials was given 30. 000FCFA, which is the average monthly wage of taxi drivers in Yaounde. What was the money for? Are trade unionists expected to receive money from the government or employers no matter how small the amount? Are they not sponsored for such negotiating expenses from the levies contributed by members? Why did the government officials give the 30.000FCFA; a piece which can rightly be interpreted as offering payola to the unionists?  Labour unions are formed principally to give employees collective bargaining with their employers for better wages, working conditions, and benefits. What are the drivers’ take on the negotiations?

There are speculations all over that the union representatives are threatening to call a devastating nationwide strike if government does not cave in to their demands. Their main concern is to be allowed to further increase fares that would squeeze the ordinary citizen just barely managing to live on the breadline to literally die in penury.

They are not negotiating that some of the checkpoints that float the highways should be removed neither are they asking government to sternly punish drivers who risk the lives of passengers by overloading their vehicles. The unionists are not putting pressure on the authorities to ban clandestine transportation on major roads or some men in uniform who display their khakis or caps in their “clandos” so as to avoid paying taxes for their cabs, yet are competing for passengers with taxis.

The Taxi Drivers’ Union president has conceded that government gave them 30. 000FCFA each but refuted widespread allegations that they are asking for 5MFCFA. To underline the adage that there can be no smoke without fire, he says: “The ministers themselves are the ones spreading that information.” If they could receive 30.000FCFA, they could as well ask for a pound of flesh and a government nervous of the consequences of a national strike would compromise.

But in accepting the money, they have burnt their candle on both ends. How many of them have declared in their various unions that they took money from the government? In a real trade union environment, all of them would be given a vote of no confidence and replaced by new executives.

Even though the rise in fuel prices was untimely and bad economics as we have said before, government has however demonstrated that it cares and listens to the plight of the citizenry. That is why it deplored some ministers to the field. The minister of transport hosted a fire-brigade meeting which included his colleagues of the labour and social insurance, commerce, the gendarmes and police bosses as well as representatives of the minister of finance to explain government’s position to cushion the impact of the fuel increase.

Government’s spin doctor, Tchiroma Bakary was glued to the microphone doing just what he knows best, in French and English. The meeting reached no accord and Gregoire Owona, minister of labour and social insurance held another meeting with representatives of some 20 trade unions. Owona who is also deputy secretary general of the ruling CPDM reached a tentative agreement to take up taxi fares from 200FCFA to 250FCFA in the day and 300FCFA from 10pm. The unionists were still not satisfied but with their trump card in tatters, they warned that within a month if their conditions were not met, they will call on workers nationwide to down tools.

In as much as The Guardian Post agrees that fares should be increased, it should correspond with the rise in gasoline prices. But that is not their cup of tea. The transporters have overdone it and it should end at that.  The unionists must concede that in accepting money, no matter how little the amount from government, they have squandered their credibility and not many workers will yield to any call for a strike.  

A nationwide strike will have a lethal repercussion not only on transporters but on the entire population. They would lose revenue, just as the government and at the end of the day; those negotiating from the government bench will still have their salaries. The persons to suffer will be the commoner and that is why The Guardian Post calls on trade unionists not to call for any strike.