ABSTRACT
The social upheavals of the early 1990s suggest that the rejection of dictatorships and African peoples’ aspirations for more democracy are established facts. African trade unions have already made decisive contributions to the introduction and installation of the democratic process, and they have an important role to play. Assessing the results of adjustment has sparked off much controversy. The chapter examines the impact of Structural Adjustment Programmes on workers and their trade unions in sub-Saharan Africa Africa and deals with the way that national and international unions have reacted to Structural Adjustment Programme. Structural Adjustment Programmes have had a major impact on the level of unemployment in the formal sector, and have been basically responsible for massive retrenchments in both the private and the public sectors. Unions have sometimes tried to head off the implementation of anti-worker adjustment measures, such as redundancies, by demanding consultation rights.
