This May Day, we are two years into the pandemic where all our frontline public sector workers have bravely adapted to the new way of working and living. Public service workers are frontline workers and therefore constantly have to adapt to new challenges and new situations caused by factors such as political insecurity due to coups and insurgencies, economic insecurity with many governments implementing austerity budgets despite high poverty and unemployment austerity measures, and social insecurities with no protections in place to guarantee shelter or access to care. Yet, with all these issues which becloud our societies, public sector workers remain resilient and continue to provide their services to communities despite all the overwhelming challenges. Indeed, public sector workers remain one of the critical pillars holding the fabric of our continent together.

As frontline actors, healthcare workers provide care despite the weak healthcare systems. Workers in the energy sector hold the fort to keep our electricity supplies on, even in harsh working conditions without social security nets. Workers in local and national government strive daily to rebuild our administration and infrastructure when cities and towns are destroyed by conflicts or climate disasters. We call on all National governments in the region to ensure decent work and social protection for all public servants.

 Our trade unions are led by workers committed to struggle. We stand in solidarity with trade union leaders who face intimidation and persecution in Algeria and other countries across the region. We stand in solidarity with workers in Swaziland who were shot and injured while demanding a wage increase and an end to union-bashing. We know that in many countries, unions suffer from repressive governments and trade union bashing. We call for governments to respect ILO convention 87 on Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention and convention and Convention 98 on the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention.

While we salute frontline workers for their role in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic, we continue to bow our heads and mourn the ongoing loss of lives of workers to Covid-19. We demand that governments across our region support the campaign for the TRIPS waiver on Covid-19 vaccines, medicines and technology so we can manufacture them to fight the pandemic. We must end health inequalities and strive for health equity. 

May day belongs to workers, and we once again, we recommit to the struggle of the working class rooted in Human rights, feminist principles and racial equality. We stand firm in our commitment to ensure that we work to build a new generation of union leadership. We are encouraged by the growing young workers and women’s committees established by our unions. We are encouraged by our unions tackling issues such as digitalization and climate change. We are encouraged by the ongoing commitment to trade unionism as democratic worker organizations committed to equal and Quality Public Services for All.