SISTEMAS DE TRABAJO

As we have seen in Chapter 3, wages and conditions of service were negotiated between management and union until 1969, when a National Joint Bargaining Board for Collective Agreements and Wages was installed by the government. In October 1970 this Board adopted a classification of workers into 12 categories, with minimum salaries attached to each category. Its classification was introduced into the corporation in 1971.

The classification adopted has been a continuous source of conflict on the Tole Estate. Like other field workers on the estate, female pluckers have protested against the category they were classified in. This led to numerous collective trade disputes and threats of strike action.26

The pluckers were initially placed in Category 1, the lowest category comprising unskilled labour. This caused a great deal of disgruntlement among the pluckers who looked upon their classification as a serious underestimation of the skills required for plucking and an attempt to underpay them. After numerous complaints to the management, they declared a collective dispute on 9 April 1976.27 _{Following a close examination of the issue, the}

Provincial Inspector of Labour ruled on 28 May 1976 that the pluckers should be placed in Category 2 (semi-skilled labour), with effect from 1 April 1976.28

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Chapter 6: Informal and collective actions of female workers

In June 1976 the Tole Tea workers joined a general strike of the CDC workers. This strike, which was not supported by the union, arose from the matter of payment of gratuities and 1971-1973 wage increases, but it soon became a manifestation of the CDC workers’ general discontent with the low remuneration for their hard work. The workers resumed work only when management had agreed that workers’ representatives would be allowed to attend the verification of the payment of gratuities and the wage increases by a delegation of the Ministry of Labour.29

In early 1992, all the CDC workers in the Fako Division, including the Tole female pluckers, started to agitate for (i) the abrogation of the January 1990 agreement between the CDC management and the union leadership which had resulted in a drastic reduction in their fringe benefits and the introduction of a compulsory savings scheme, and (ii) the immediate payment of seven quarters of family allowance arrears. The CDC management, however, refused to withdraw the agreement. The only concession it was eventually willing to make was to offer a 3% reduction in the compulsory savings rate so as to partly compensate the workers for tax increases. This offer was unacceptable to the workers. When the management declined to reconsider, CDC workers in the Fako Division, including the Tole female pluckers, went on strike from 21 to 26 May 1992. After this strike, the management agreed upon various amendments of the 6 January 1990 agreement as well as a 24% reduction in medical costs.

Besides collective action, female pluckers have engaged in many kinds of informal actions in protest against low remuneration. These included output restriction, sabotage and involvement in ‘illegal’ income-generating activities. Some women do not keep to the plucking standards. They add bad leaves to the good ones, a practice which enables them to complete their task earlier and to achieve more weight and income. Others steal tea from the factory and sell it to middlemen. Still others cut tea bushes and prunings to use them for firewood.30 _{These and other ‘illegal’ activities are not only}

expressions of protest, but also provide welcome additions to the women’s meagre incomes.

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Gender and Plantation Labour in Africa

Conclusion

The material presented in this chapter challenges the common managerial assumption that female workers in the developing countries are easier to control than male workers. The Tole Estate management, in fact, has never succeeded in creating a docile female labour force. Female pluckers have always been wont to defend their occupational interests independently, whenever they perceived that the union was unresponsive to their demands. They have engaged in a variety of informal and collective actions to challenge their control and exploitation. Spectacular collective actions, of course, tend to be more risky than informal actions in a situation where the state strives to achieve ‘total’ control over civil society and where strikes are virtually outlawed. Strikes only occur as a last resort when other means of defence are unavailable or have failed. The actions of female pluckers may not always have achieved their direct objectives, but they should not be judged solely in terms of their effects on pay and conditions of work. They should also be conceived as important opportunities for raising women’s capacities for self-organisation and self-confidence.

Notes

1. Report of the Conciliatory Meeting between CDC Management and the Tole Tea Workers on 25 November 1976, in File MEPS/SWP/ BU.124/S.2, Industrial Trade Disputes - CDC.

2. ‘See CDC, Tole Tea Estate, Minutes of the Estate Consultative Meeting held at the Club on 13 October 1990.

3. Report on the Tole Tea Estate Strike by Mr E.N. Balon, Assistant Superintendent of Police, to Commissioner of Police, Buea, dated 12 July 1963, in BNA, File Qe (1959) 14, Labour Strikes.

4. For the actions of the pruners, see File MTPS/SWP/BU.95/S.1, Vol. IX, Complaints from CDC; and File MTPS/SWP/BU.124/S.2, Industrial Trade Disputes - CDC.

5. See Letter of Mr E.K. Lottin, Provincial Inspector of Labour and Social Insurance, to Administrative Personnel Controller of CDC, Bota, dated 3 January 1978, in File MTPS/SWP/BU.124/S.2, Industrial Trade Disputes - CDC.

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Chapter 6: Informal and collective actions of female workers

6. See Letter of Staff Representatives, Tole Tea Estate, to Provincial Inspector of Labour, Buea, dated 2 September 1978, in ibid.

7. See Letter of Mr C.P.N. Vewessee, President of FAWU, to Administrative Personnel Controller of CDC, dated 19 September 1978, in FAWU, File no. 2, CDC.

8. See Letter of Estate Manager, Tole Tea, to Provincial Inspector of Labour and Social Insurance, Buea, dated 29 August 1978, in ibid.

9. See Letter of Staff Representatives, Tole Tea Estate, to Provincial Inspector of Labour and Social Insurance, Buea, dated 29 August 1978, in ibid.

10. See Letter of Administrative Personnel Controller of CDC, to Provincial Inspector of Labour and Social Insurance, Buea, dated 17 December 1982, in File MTPS/SWP/BU.95/S.1, Vol. IX, Complaints from CDC.

11. See Letter of Staff Representatives, Tole Tea, to Provincial Inspector of Labour and Social Insurance, Buea, dated 15 October 1982, in File MTPS/SWP/BU.180/S.1, Vol. IX, Election of Staff Representatives - CDC.

12. See Minutes of Meeting held on 3 August 1987 on Further Measures to Combat the Economic Crisis.

13. See Cameroon Post, 27 October 1988, p. 1.

14. Letter of Mr C.P.N. Vewessee, President of FAWU, to General Manager of CDC, dated 10 October 1988, in File MTPS/IPTPS/ SWP/BU.95/S.1, Vol. XII, Complaints from CDC.

15. See Letter of Mr E.A. Eloundou, Estate Manager, Tole Tea, to Misses July Mbong and Celine Ekoe, dated 11 October 1986, in File MTPS/ IPTPS/SWP/BU.95/S.1, Vol. XII, Complaints from CDC.

16. Circular Letter from Estate Manager, Tole Tea, to Staff Representatives, dated 15 July 1983, in File MTPS/SWP/BU.95/S.1, Vol. X, Complaints from CDC.

17. CDC, Tole Tea Estate, Minutes of Estate Consultative Meeting held at the Club on 13 October 1990.

18. Ibid.

19. Letter of Mr Jacob T. Fomunyen, Bota Palms Estate, to the Acting Manager, Bota Palms Estate, dated 20 April 1988, in File MTPS/ IDTPS/LB.2, Vol. XXIV, Complaints from CDC.

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20. See Letter of Mr R.E. Ejume, Acting General Secretary of CDCWU, to Personnel Manager of the CDC, Bota, dated 19 December 1969, in File CDCWU, Vol. 2, no. 56/59.

21. See Letter of Mr R.P. MacNicol, Senior Manager, Tole Tea Estate, to Area Manager, Bota, dated 27 November 1969.

22. See Letter of Tole Tea Estate Workers to General Manager of CDC, Bota, dated 23 November 1976; and Report of a Conciliatory Meeting of CDC Management versus Tole Tea workers, in File MTPS/SWP/ BU.124/S.2, Industrial Trade Disputes - CDC.

23. See Letter of Tole Tea Estate Workers to Administrative Personnel Controller of CDC, dated 9 July, in ibid.

24. See Letter of Tole Tea Estate Workers to Provincial Inspector of Labour and Social Insurance, Buea, dated 10 December 1979, in ibid.

25. See Letter of Staff Representatives, Tole Tea Estate, to Estate Manager, Tole Tea Estate, dated 11 May 1978, in File MEPS/SWP/BU.95/S.1, Vol. VIII, Complaints from CDC.

26. For these trade disputes and threats of strike action, see File MTPS/ SWP/BU.124/S.2, Industrial Trade Disputes - CDC.

27. See Letter of Tole Tea Estate Workers to Provincial Inspector of Labour and Social Insurance, Buea, dated 9 April 1976, in ibid.

28. See Letter of Mr E.K. Lottin, Provincial Inspector of Labour and Social Insurance, to Administrative Personnel Controller of CDC, dated 30 May 1976, in ibid.

29. For a report of this strike, see ibid.

30 . For these activities, see File MTPS/SWP/BU.95/S.1, Vol. X, Complaints from CDC.

Part II