ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how the research results can be translated into possible implications for trade union policy. It explores what the grassroots trade union representatives expect from trade union policy, and/or how this is interpreted by the researchers. The current trade union condition is cause for grave concern. Large numbers of workplace trade union representatives have no access to labour laws or to trade union statutes. Local trade union committees have few or no resources to carry out their functions no budget, office space, means of transport or other resources. There is also inadequate provision of trade union education, weakness of internal trade union democracy as well as marked under-representation of women and youth in trade union structures. In several African countries, structures of democratic participation beyond the workplace exist today. They include Economic, Social and Cultural Councils, as in Mali and other francophone African countries, and the National Economic Development and Labour Council of South Africa (NEDLAC).
