Gabon

Jean-Chrysostome Mondzo Bisme, deputy general secretary and spokesman of the airport assistance workers’ union SYAAAP (Syndicat des Agents de l’Assistance Aéroportuaire), was reportedly arrested on the night of Wednesday 11 September at around 11 p.m. at the entrance to his home for having made defamatory remarks. His arrest was deemed arbitrary and unjust by the coalition of transport company unions and civil society organisations.

The Dynamique Unitaire union confederation denounced a series of arrests and acts of intimidation targeting several of its leaders and members.
On 3 July, Gabon’s interior minister announced his intention to prosecute the president of the union confederation, Jean Rémy Yama, for spreading false information. The union leader had reportedly said at a general assembly in early July that President Ali Bongo Ondimba, who had suffered a stroke at the end of October 2018, had died. His home was subsequently searched by the Directorate General of Investigations (DGR).
The confederation also condemned the arrests of four of its leaders on 11 and 12 July: Simon Ndong Edzo (vice president of Dynamique Unitaire), Sylvie Nkogue Mbot (president of the HIPPOCRATE trade union and confederal secretary of Dynamique Unitaire), Jean Bosco Boungoumou Boulanda (president of the ONPESE trade union) and Ghislain Malanda (president of the SAMTAC trade union). One of them was reportedly hospitalised after receiving a beating. They were all released on 19 July.
Other members of the confederal bureau were the objects of surveillance, phone tapping and attempted kidnappings.

The police prevented the holding of the Dynamique Unitaire union confederation’s general assembly, scheduled for 27 April 2019 in Libreville. Law enforcement officers reportedly occupied the area surrounding the meeting venue from as early as 5 a.m. and used tear gas to disperse members trying to assemble.

On 5 September, the Gabonese police dispersed employees from the Oil Ministry during a strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike held in Libreville to demand four months in wage arrears and a return to the mutual funds scheme.

Marcel Libama, trade union leader, strategic advisor of CONASYSED and the trade union centre trade union centre A central organisation at the national, regional or district level consisting of affiliated trade unions. Often denotes a national federation or confederation. Dynamique Unitaire (DU), was taken into police custody on 15 June for libel through the press and contempt of court. The charges were filed by the same prosecutor who filed charges against Cyprien Moungouli. He accused him of having slandered him during an interview at the end of the trial during which trade unionist Cyprien Mougouli was sentenced on the same charges. During the interview, Marcel Libama had, in fact, denounced the arbitrary nature of the trial. The journalist who conducted the interview was also arrested for having refused to censor it. The decision violates the right to information and freedom of the press. It is also a reflection of the ban on CONASYSED’s activities. The journalist and the trade union leader, who received a 45-day prison sentence and a fine of 300,000 CFA francs, were heard once again at an appeal on 26 July. They were released the same day, after spending over two months in prison.

Cyprien Moungouli, provincial representative of the education trade union centre trade union centre A central organisation at the national, regional or district level consisting of affiliated trade unions. Often denotes a national federation or confederation. , CONASYSED, arrested on 18 May for contempt of court following a complaint against him by the state prosecutor of the Court of First Instance in Tchibanga, was sentenced on 15 June to a six-month prison sentence, one month custodial and five suspended, and a fine of 150,000 CFA francs. According to CONASYSED, Cyprien Moungouli was simply seeking information regarding the progress of the complaint against the committee of wise men of Nyanga, filed by CONASYSED, regarding the death threats issued to trade unionists during the last nationwide strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike . The trade unionist was released after serving his one-month fixed term in prison. CONASYSED denounced the persecution being suffered by its trade unions since January.

The national oil employees’ union ONEP (Organisation Nationale des Employés du Pétrole) filed a complaint with the International Labour Organization International Labour Organization A tripartite United Nations (UN) agency established in 1919 to promote working and living conditions. The main international body charged with developing and overseeing international labour standards.

See tripartism, ITUC Guide to international trade union rights (ILO International Labour Organization A tripartite United Nations (UN) agency established in 1919 to promote working and living conditions. The main international body charged with developing and overseeing international labour standards.

See tripartism, ITUC Guide to international trade union rights ) against the state of Gabon on 29 May. The trade union considers the state to be violating its trade union rights by excluding it from a collective bargaining collective bargaining The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.

See collective bargaining agreement
procedure initiated in March 2017 within the oil group Maurel et Prom. The negotiations were aimed at ending the successive strikes being held since October 2016. The ILO International Labour Organization A tripartite United Nations (UN) agency established in 1919 to promote working and living conditions. The main international body charged with developing and overseeing international labour standards.

See tripartism, ITUC Guide to international trade union rights requested an explanation from the authorities of Gabon in a letter addressed to it in July.

Almost two hundred trade unionists affiliated to Dynamique Unitaire (DU), a confederation of trade unions from various sectors, were dispersed by the police, who used teargas, smoke bombs and batons during a march held in Libreville for May Day under the heading “Stop the Human and Trade Union rights Violations”. According to the police, quoting the law prohibiting gatherings, the demonstration was unauthorised. According to the trade union confederation, however, the minister of the interior had been given prior notice of the gathering by letter.

In response to the strikes being staged since October 2016 by teachers from national education trade unions, the education minister published a circular on 30 January 2017 announcing the penalisation of trade unionists and other groups taking part in the strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike . The minister’s note calls on members of the administration and other heads of educational establishments not only to “immediately suspend the wages of staff absent from work without justification”, but also those of “teachers not, in effect, giving their classes”. He also announced the “establishment of disciplinary councils” and “expulsion, without consultation of disciplinary bodies, in the case of posts abandoned without valid reasons for three months”. Teachers are now obliged to clock in every day and a list of recalcitrants will be sent, on a weekly basis, to the public service and finance ministers. The government, which recognised the legitimacy of the trade unions’ demands at the end of 2016, stated that it does not have sufficient funds to address them. In March, 800 teachers had their pay suspended.

The Ministry of the Interior, at the request of the national education minister, banned, by ministerial order published on 17 March 2017, and without prior notice, all the activities of the CONASYSED (Convention Nationale des Syndicats du Système Éducatif), which brings together seven education trade unions (SAEG, SEENA, SYNETECPRO, FESEENA, FNSE, SNEEPS and SYNAJES). The grounds given were disturbance of public order, obstruction of the right to work, violence and assault. According to the government, CONASYSED allegedly threatened non-strikers and expatriate teachers giving classes, and committed acts of vandalism. The heads of the organisation, legalised in 2012, contested these allegations, deeming them to be unfounded, and denounced that the decision was “unfair and arbitrary” and constitutes a violation of the international conventions stipulating that trade unions cannot be dissolved or suspended by administrative means. The ban was announced in the context of the strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike being staged by teachers since October 2016 and the punitive measures announced by the government in January. CONASYSED acknowledges that the strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike is seriously disrupting schooling in Gabon, but censures the government’s refusal to negotiate. It has called on the trade union movement to continue mobilising.

Rain Forest Management, a Malaysian owned wood processing company, refused to negotiate with the Entente Syndicale des Travailleurs du Gabon (EN.SY.TG). Union leadership visited the company between 25-30 September 2013. However, workers who were planning to take part in the trade union meetings were threatened and intimidated. EN.SY.TG was informed that about 50 union members were summoned by the human resources management and threatened to be dismissed if they continued to stay in the union. On 10 October 2013, the union leader at the enterprise was falsely accused with theft and arrested.

The ONEP oil workers’ union announced an unlimited strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike to demand the application of a 2010 collective agreement signed by the government on better working conditions and increased use of Gabonese workers. Workers from about 90 per cent of the companies in the oil sector participated in the strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike . On 17 March 2013, the government acceded to the workers’ demands.

Feared by the authorities for their capacity to exert a stranglehold on the Gabonese economy heavily dependent on oil revenues, the National Organisation of Petroleum Employees (ONEP) explained the reasons for its industrial action industrial action Any form of action taken by a group of workers, a union or an employer during an industrial dispute to gain concessions from the other party, e.g. a strike, go-slow or an overtime ban, or a lockout on the part of the employer. during the year, namely the highly precarious nature of employment in the industry, the abusive and illegal use of fixed term contracts, the proliferation of sub-contractors and outdated collective agreements that no longer matched the socio-economic reality. One of ONEP’s principal demands, together with several other unions, concerned the abusive and illegal use of foreign workers who were paid up to 20 times more for the same skills. In April a four day strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike brought the country to a virtual standstill and cost the Gabonese state the equivalent of 90 million euros, according to ONEP.