Trade unions claim strike victory as government promises higher wages

Trade union leaders have claimed victory after a five-day strike last week reduced the normally bustling capital Conakry to a hush and pressed the government into committing to wage increases. Following talks over the weekend the government has promised to hike civil servant wages by 30 percent – short of the four-fold increase unions were demanding – and reduce taxes on state employees’ salaries by 10 percent. The government and union representatives have also promised to draw up a new minimum wage and salary scale for private sector workers. Ibrahima Fofana, secretary general of the United Workers Union of Guinea (USTG) – one of the two central union alliances that led the strike – welcomed the announcement but said that the success of the strike went beyond pay raises. “It is not only the salary increase that we gained that gave me satisfaction, but also the united manner in which all and sundry supported the strike with one voice and one aim,” Fofana said at a post-strike meeting. “This [strike] has shown what the workers can do in pulling this country out of its present economic misery, and the government will have to change its method of dealing with the workers of this country,” he added. Guinea, despite vast natural resources, is one of the poorest countries in the world. With inflation at nearly 30 percent and the local currency’s value falling daily, the cost of a 50-kilogram sack of rice is spiralling out of control to US $25 – more than half of a civil servant’s monthly wage. Transport Minister Aliou Conde, who headed the government’s negotiation team, said the state did not have the means to meet the strikers’ initial demands. “This government earns 1,900 billon Guinean Francs [US $425 million] monthly as revenue and already we pay 400 billion Guinean Francs in salaries. If we meet the four-fold increase they are demanding it will mean we pay 1,600 billion in salaries alone out of that. No government in this world would ever accept that,” Conde told IRIN. Workers, generally happy at the outcome of negotiations, were back at their jobs this week, but observers say that the success of the strike could embolden unions to stage more far-reaching actions.