One of Cameroon’s main political parties, the Social Democratic Front, SDF organised a workshop that brought together 20 leaders drawn from national trade union confederations, federations and unions to look at Cameroon’s labour issues, their shared interests and together, find ways to collaborate and seek solutions.
The main takeaway from the meeting, according to the Kribi Declaration issued at the end of the meeting, is the creation of the Cameroon Labour Movement, CALAMO. The SDF and various union stakeholders meet in Kribi from May 11 to 13, 2023.
The stakeholders at the meeting, in a statement released after the meeting, said deliberations bordered on the economic and psychosocial situation of workers in Cameroon: the role played by trade unions; the political commitment of trade union movements: a brief historical review, the social policy of the SDF: what place and what solutions for the worker; considering the objectives of this workshop; considering the constraints of the UN Sustainable Development Goals; covenant on Civil and Political Rights; having regard to resolution 1952 of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) on the independence of trade union movement.
The parties said after examining the challenges and constraints that could hinder the achievement of their shared common objectives, they decided to, “Welcome the ideological convergence and points of view on the challenges of a collaboration between the two parties; 2- Decide to create a platform for sustainable collaboration between the two parties called “CAMEROON LABOR MOVEMENT (CALAMO)” with a view to pooling their skills and capacities, their actions and their resources, 3- Undertake to establish a political platform for the future; 4- Adopt the establishment of a monitoring and evaluation mechanism for collaboration and undertake to make it operational; 5- Decide that the Cameroon Labour Movement (CALAMO) platform remains open to all organizations sharing the values of social democracy.”
Signatories to the statement referred to as the Kribi Declaration included SDF’s First Vice President Hon. Joshua Osih and the leaders of the 20 national trade union confederations, federations and unions.
