As Labour Day approaches, workers of Uganda unite

Wednesday, May 1, will be celebrated as Labour Day in recognition of the important contribution workers make to achieve economic and social development of Uganda. The national celebrations will take place at Akwee Primary School, Patongo in Agago District. The theme of Labour Day 2019 is: “Promoting employment through enhanced public infrastructure development.”

Although a public holiday, for the majority of Ugandan workers, it will not be a day to rest or celebrate the dignity and importance of labour. It will just be another day to toil long hours for peanuts since Uganda’s ruling class believes that Ugandan workers do not deserve a minimum wage because, according to them, minimum wage will chase away foreign investors who are given preferential treatment by the regime at the expense of Ugandan citizens.
Labour is one of four factors of production; the others being land, capital and entrepreneurship. Of the four, labour is regarded by progressive economists and political scientists as the primary and most important productive force.

Whenever Labour Day comes, I remember May 1, 1970, the day on which the workers of Uganda stood tall, with joy and pride to welcome the beginning of the economic emancipation of Uganda. On that historic day, ownership of the means of production and the resources of Uganda were put into the hands of Ugandans by the first UPC government. Workers of Uganda have an important role to play in our collective efforts to protect the national assets and resources of Uganda. Workers can, however, play this role effectively if they are empowered. Empowering workers was a cardinal objective and goal of the two UPC administrations of 1960s and 1980s.

When he gave testimony in 1990 to a commission of inquiry into violations of human rights (1962 to 1986), chaired by Justice Arthur Oder, former vice president Paulo Muwanga (RIP) lamented that some Ugandans celebrated the rise to power of NRA without any idea of what awaited them in the future. He warned Ugandans that by the time the NRM regime’s misrule ends, as it will, “the country will have lost all its possessions and national assets, the political class will be divided, one against the other and Uganda will be in ruins!”

Under the two UPC administrations labour was given the highest importance which it deserves by having a separate ministry of Labour headed by a senior Cabinet minister. Under the NRM regime Labour has been downgraded to a mere directorate in the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development.
The irony could not be more cynical, disappointing and mind-boggling! Two majorities, women and workers, of our beleaguered country lumped together in a minor ministry which is not a core ministry.

Women are numerically the majority sex while the workers of Uganda constitute almost 90 per cent of the population of the Pearl of Africa, of whom 80 per cent are employed in that financially deprived sector called agriculture. It is an insult and totally unacceptable to allocate barely four per cent of the national budget to agriculture!
When NSSF was established by the first UPC government in 1967, it was placed securely under the Ministry of Labour where workers’ hard-earned savings were kept in absolute safety and invested wisely.
In 2004, NSSF was arbitrarily transferred for dubious reasons to the Ministry of Finance and the Fund almost regrettably became a cash cow and ATM for some leaders.

As Ugandans celebrate the dignity of labour, the leadership of the National Organisation of Trade Unions must speak truth to power, without fear or favour, and reiterate the legitimate demands which the workers of Uganda have made every year, for more than three decades, without any positive results.
The NRM regime must urgently address the burning challenges and problems which Ugandan workers face and stop treating them with contempt, as if the principal producers of Uganda’s wealth do not matter! The wealth produced by Ugandan workers must be protected from the greedy ruling elite who have shamelessly plundered the resources of Uganda for decades, with impunity.

Mr Acemah is a political scientist and retired career diplomat.
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