Burkina Faso road transport unions agree CBA action plan

As part of the ITF/SASK road transport corridors project for 2013-2015, the ITF sub-regional office for Francophone Africa and the ECOWAS countries and its road transport affiliates in Burkina Faso held a three-day workshop on their strategic campaign for the implementation of a sectoral collective bargaining agreement (CBA) in the country.

Burkina Faso’s minister of public service, labour and social security, Vincent Zakané, chaired the opening ceremony on 27 May. Guests included the general directors of the Infrastructure and Transport ministry and the National Office of Road Security and representatives of the country’s national trade union centres and employers’ road transport organisations. The media covered the opening and closing ceremonies.

ITF Francophone Africa and ECOWAS countries’ representative Bayla Sow urged the government to make every effort to quickly and effectively implement the CBA, which was signed on 6 December 2011, in order to regulate and improve working conditions in the nation’s highly strategic road transport sector.

In response, Zakané focused on the challenges of making the agreement capable of transforming the sector into a vibrant, thriving and modern one, where employers and employees agree on basic working conditions and actively participate in the development of the national economy. He invited all parties to engage in constructive discussions to find a real consensus on implementation. 

Sow commented after the workshop, “We made good progress and got our message across to the government. However, we will continue our campaign – which will include an action week in October – to ensure that the CBA gets implemented soon and brings real improvements in the sector.”

Through presentations and group work, 24 participants, including four women and two young workers, learnt how to develop, implement and evaluate a strategic campaign and then developed an action plan which all three unions committed to implement.