When Labour Strikes Went Beyond ConventionalGrievances: A Climate of Disquiet inthe Cameroon Development Corporation, 1947-1986
| International Journal of Economics and Management Studies |
| © 2019 by SSRG - IJEMS Journal |
| Volume 6 Issue 2 |
| Year of Publication : 2019 |
| Authors : Damian Tatazo Akara and Mark Bolak Funteh |
10.14445/23939125/IJEMS-V6I2P104
How to Cite?
Damian Tatazo Akara and Mark Bolak Funteh, "When Labour Strikes Went Beyond ConventionalGrievances: A Climate of Disquiet inthe Cameroon Development Corporation, 1947-1986," SSRG International Journal of Economics and Management Studies, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 20-25, 2019. Crossref, https://doi.org/10.14445/23939125/IJEMS-V6I2P104
Abstract:
In many parts of the world, labour strikes are organized with the aim of achieving two principal objectives, increase in wages and improved working conditions in an enterprise. Workers’ agitations are often geared towards compelling management to heed to these demands. In the Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC) however, evidence show that some labour strikes went beyond the conventional motives for workers’ agitation. Some strikes actions took the dimension of scores-settling. This paper argues that someworkers’ unrests were characterized by the call for the sanction, transfer or dismissal of somesupervisory or managerial staffs and even fellow colleagueswhom they considered fiends or toe-rags in the labour force.
Keywords:
Labour, Strikes,Conventional Grievances, Disquiet, CameroonDevelopment Corporation.
References:
[1] The Custodian of Enemy Property was an Alliedbody, with headquarters in Lagos, Nigeria, responsible for the management of the property that had been seized from the Germans following their defeat in the Second world War.
[2] CDC Annual Report and Accounts for the 12 Months Ended June 30, 1989, p. 10.
[3] S.J.Epale,Plantation and Development in West Cameroon, 1885 -1975: A Study inAgrarian CapitalismNew York: Vantage Press, 1985, pp. 137-139.
[4] P.Konings,Labour Resistance in Cameroon: Managerial Strategies and Labour Resistance in Agro-Industrial Plantations of the Cameroon Development Corporation, London: James Currey, 1993, p. 64.
[5] Ibid., pp. 107; 111.
[6] In conformity with the International Labour Organization’s regulations, various labour codes in Cameroon have outlined the procedure that governs the declaration of strike actions in a legal or lawful manner. For example, sections 169 of the 1967, 165 of the 1974 and 157 of the 1992 labour codes indicate that collective bargaining must be engaged in a labour conflict. It is only after the exhaustion or failure of the main instruments of collective bargaining such as conciliation and arbitration that a strike action could be declared as last resort. It is only then that a strike action be considered lawful.
[7] V.Kinge, The Private Sector and the Agricultural Enterprise in Cameroon, Lagos: Stock House, 1989, pp. 19-20; Konings, Labour Resistance, pp. 107-111.
[8] National Archives Buea (hereafter NAB), Labour Strikes, No. Qe (1959) 14, P612, p. 22, Letter, R.F.S. Lewis to the Commissioner of Labour, Lagos, December 7, 1948.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Ibid., pp. 1-2.
[11] NAB, Labour Strikes, No. Qe (1959) 14, P612, p. 24 , Letter, R.F.S. Lewis, to the Commissioner of Labour, Lagos, April 22, 1949.
[12] Ibid., p. 25.
[13] NAB, Labour Strikes, No. Qe (1959) 14, P612, p. 25, Letter, R.F.S. Lewis, to the Commissioner of Labour, Lagos, April 22, 1949.
[14] Ibid.
[15] W.A.Warmington, “The Background to Plantation Employment” inE. Ardener, S. Ardener and W.A. Warmington, eds., Plantation and Village in the Cameroons, SomeEconomic and Social Studies, London: Oxford University Press, 1960, p. 106.
[16] Mark B. Funteh, “Cameroon-Nigerian Interaction: A Delicate Story of Proximity, Association and Opportunities,” KALIAO, Vol. 5, no. 10, June 2013, pp. 59-85.
[17] Funteh, “Cameroon-Nigerian Interaction,” pp. 67-69; Joseph B. Ebune,The Growth of Political Parties in the Southern Cameroons, 1916-1960 (Yaounde: CEPER, 1992), pp. 131-132; Joseph L. Nfi, Nigerians on Mission in the British Southern Cameroons (Bamenda: Baron Printing House, 2015), pp. 53-58.
[18] Nfi, Nigerians on Mission in the British Southern Cameroons, p. 55.
[19] In 1953, the rank and file of the National Council for Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC), a political party led by Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, was rocked by a serious political crisis. It stemmed from a disagreement between Dr Azikiwe, President of the party and professor Eyo-Ita, Vice President of the NCNC, who challenged the former’s leadership. Azikiwe was a member of the National Legislative Council in Lagos, Nigeria while Eyo-Ita was the party’s regional leader in the Eastern House of Assembly and Leader of Government Business in the Eastern Region. Azikiwe wanted radical changes in the constitution of the party and a cabinet reshuffle but was opposed by Eyo-Ita. During the crisis, the Cameroonian representatives realised that their minority position in the Eastern Regional House of Assembly drowned their own pro-Cameroonian demands for a separate regional status. As such, the only solution was for some of them to boycott all political interactions with Nigeria.
[20] Nfi, Nigerians on Mission in the British Southern Cameroons, pp. 99-100.
[21] Interview with Stephen TamfuhGamngong, about 80 years, Retired Senior Field Assistant, Tole Tea Estate, Wowo Village in Donga-Mantung Division of the North West Region, August 3, 2014. He worked in the Ndu Tea Estate in the North West Region and then the Tole Tea Estate in the South West Region of Cameroon.
[22] Idem.
[23] Interview with Oscar Sama Ngwamesia, 73 years, retired Junior Field Assistant, Wotutu Village, August 18, 2014. He was recruited as a field labourer in the Tole Tea Estate in 1961. From 1963-165 he worked as Junior Headman. From 1965-1977 he was Assistant Overseer. In 1978, he was appointed as full Overseer. In 1979 he became Junior Field Assistant and worked in this capacity until he retired in 2000. He still had a strong memory of life and other important happenings at the plantation.
[24] Idem.
[25] NAB, Labour Strikes, No. Qe (1959) 14, P612, p. 34, “Report on Threatened Strike Action by Tole Tea Estate Workers,” E.N. Balon to the Commissioner of Police, Buea, July 12, 1963.
[26] Interview with Ngwamesia.
[27] P.Konings,Labour Resistance in Cameroon: Managerial Strategies and Labour Resistance in Agro-Industrial Plantations of the Cameroon Development Corporation, London: James Currey, 1993, pp. 69-70.
[28] Ibid., p. 70.
[29] Interview with Ngwamessia.
[30] NAB, Labour Strikes, No. Qe (1959) 14, P612, p. 42, Letter, G.B. Fogam to P.N. Malafa, January 27, 1964.
[31] Ibid., p. 43.
[32] NAB, Labour Strikes, No. Qe (1959) 14, P612, p. 38, Letter, P.N. Malafa to B.G. Fogam, February 3 1964.
[33] Ibid., p. 39.
[34] NAB, Labour Strikes, No. Qe (1959) 14, P612, pp. 40-41, Letter, G.B. Fogam to P.N. Malafa, February 5, 1964.
[35] NAB, Labour Strikes, No. Qe (1959) 14, P612, p. 85, Report, S.K. Chiabi to the Commissioner of Police, National Security Nso, Bui Division, April 27, 1970.
[36] Ibid.
[37] Ibid., p. 86.
[38] Konings, Labour Resistance, pp. 97-98.
[39] Ibid., p. 98.