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Solidarity
from Africa for SEIU
18.10.2003
UNI-Africa has joined the growing campaign against the "low
road" policies of US security company Wackenhut - part of the
security giant Group 4 Falck.
The UNI-Africa Regional Conference in Johannesburg called on affiliated
unions to press local managements over the dispute between Group 4 Falk’s
Wackenhut subsidiary and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).
The aim is to demand a settlement of the dispute between the company and
the SEIU.
It’s a dispute over standards with the SEIU pressing for a joint
agreement to raise standards and working conditions.
It’s also an inter-company dispute with Wackenhut refusing to join and
undermining joint initiatives and a joint and affordable medical scheme
agreed between SEIU - the biggest US union in the sector - and other
employers in several major US cities.
Emmanuel Bakot-Ndjock, of FENASYBOF Cameroon, also suggested protests to
US embassies across Africa.
Wackenhut operates in his country and all Group 4 Falck subsidiaries
together employ 4,500 people there.
"They fire workers right and left in the Cameroon and refuse to let
us organise in the sector," said Emmanuel. Those workers who join the
union are liable to be sacked.
Altogether Group 4 Falck employ 20,000 workers under various company names
in Africa - in Morocco (1500 workers), Egypt (350), Sierra Leone (400),
Ivory Coast (1300), Central African Republic (100), Cameroon (4500),
Gambia (850), Mozambique (1300) and South Africa (more than 8000).
The motion was carried unanimously.
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