African Unification Front
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AUF ECONOMIC POLICY FRAMEWORK
ECONOMIES OF SCALE WILL AUGMENT MANUFACTURING
The AUF has adopted the African Charter on Popular Participation, as the instrument that must guide the growth of African industry. In addition the AUF Economic Policy Framework is a document of plans designed to help resolve the economic problems in the African Union. The African Union requires a strategic plan for the manufacturing sector. Therefore:-
The AUF shall establish and support the African Research Coordination Bureau - that coordinates advanced technology projects carried out by African manufacturing sector, as well as African labour.
The AUF policy framework includes a plan to set up structured financing facilities to provide competitive financing in the form of loan insurance and lower interest charges to foreign and domestic buyers of African-built machinery and equipment; supporting reserch and development programs; and securing greater industrial benefits for African companies involved international markets.
The AUF seeks and supports the integration and close coordination of unions all across Africa. There is need to augment the Organisation of African Trade Union Unity (OATTU) and to support the provisions of the 1990 African Charter on Popular Participation.
The OATTU has the potential to facilitate the ease of access and expansion of workers rights and working conditions in the African Union. OATTU has 73 affiliates in 50 constituent republics of the African Union, and has as its mandate the duty to sensitise, educate and mobilise African workers on their rights, and the support of the informal sector.
The African Union must have a common market having common external tariff and a free-trade area, which will allow for labor mobility and common economic policies across the continent. There would be shared standards between regions, for implementing an effective export control system, including licensing and enforcement.
Enforcement include marks applied to products, their packaging, or their documentation as a declaration of conformity, third party testing and/or certification, quality assurance audit, and/or full type approval by a body authorized and recognized by the African Union. Standards that require continental government certification would apply to products that become subject to continent-wide directives. Before any grain can be imported into the African Union (or exported) it must be certified by the appropriate authorized organization as having met a specific standard.
Unification will allow for the development of economies of scale, where-by there is reduction in the cost per unit of producing or transporting goods through the coordination of two or more manufacturing processes or products. Unification will allow for coordination of economic efforts to promote balanced economic growth and stability in the African Union. The AUF is working to remove barriers to trade, free movement of labor and capital, and harmonize African trade, monetary, fiscal and tax policies.
AFRICAN LABOUR EXCHANGE: ENDING DISCRIMINATION
The AUF aims to establish the African Labour Exchange Commission, for the purpose of fair and orderly distributionof labour and employement. Labour exchanges must be set up in all of the major cities in the African Union.
The labour exchanges would provide certification services for workers, as well as job placement and skills upgrading services for unskilled workers. In order for large employers to hire a worker they would simply apply to the Labour Exchange, providing a description of skills required. The Labour Exchange would then match the requirements with available job applicants that it has certified are qualified for the job. The new worker would then turn up for work and the employer would have to hire the person.
This system would eliminate the need for employers to hire based on subjective criteria. In order to satisfy employers needs adequately, the labour exchanges would be managed with substantial input from employers, and they would draw up the method and protocols for certification of workers. But they would never be allowed to chose their own employees. Procedures of appeal would be put in place if the employee or the employer were disatisfied with each other during the probationery period of 3 months. A Labour Tribunal or Commission would over see the dispute to its resolution and would make legally binding recommendations to the parties.
All instruments of labour organisation such as Labour Councils, Trades Unions, religious organisations, families, etc must be recognized and their concerns addressed in an orderly and consistently all across the African Union. The African Charter on Popular Participation requires the fostering of democracy, social and economic empowerment, good governance and respect for human rights and trade union laws.
WAGES
The Extended Family Wage System must take precedence over professional scales, in those sectors of production in which familial ties are vital to the capacity of the worker. Wages under the EFWS will depend on whether the worker is has dependants.
Workers must be provided access to participate in the cultural life of Africa, and so the must have easy access to life-long education, publications, theatre, sports, recreation, leisure, libraries, etc,.
He criticised the Poverty Alleviation Programmes, which African countries are launching with the support of multi- national financial institutions like the IMF and the World Bank.
"What we need is wealth creation and not poverty alleviation, which is becoming an industry by itself," Sunmonu argued. He explained that "you cannot also create wealth without creating well-remunerated jobs."
The OATUU chief expressed the hope that, when operational, the African Union Constitutive Act and the African Economic Community based on the 1991 Abuja Treaty would make life better for the African worker.
OATTU was set up in September 1973 to coordinate the activities of African national trade unions as part of efforts toward regional integration.
AFRICAN MANUFACTURING AND TRADES UNIONS
AUF PROJECTION
The Economic Policy Framework is a document of plans is a program of the AUF. The section that follows is a broad outline of the plan that will help resolve the key manufacturing problems in Africa by ensuring transparent convergence and strategic integration of Africa's manufacturing sector. It is also designed to help make industry more become more accountable to and serve the interests and historic aspirations of the African people.
The African Union requires a continent-wide strategic plan for the manufacturing sector. Therefore:-
The AUF shall establish and support the African Research Coordination Bureau with the mandate to fund and collaborate advanced technology projects carried out by the African manufacturing sector.
The AUF shall support the integration and coordination of unions all across Africa. The formation of an continental organization to facilitate the ease of access and expansion of regional unions into continentally integrated and active unions. This organ will be called the African Trades Union Confederation. The ATUC's principal goal would be to secure the development of concerns that impact on the lives and working conditions of Africans in the manufacturing sector. Moreover, the AUF aims to level Africa-wide, the policies affecting workers, and to grow their participation in the growth of African industry.
The African Union must be a Free Trade Area, and be a Common Market having a Common External Tarrif, which will allow for labor mobility and common economic policies across the continent. There would be shared standards between regions, for implementing an effective export control system, including licensing and enforcement.
Enforcement include marks applied to products, their packaging, or their documentation as a declaration of conformity, third party testing and/or certification, quality assurance audit, and/or full type approval by a body authorized and recognized by the Africa government of unity. Standards that require continental government certification would apply to products that become subject to continent-wide directives. Before any grain can be imported into Africa (or exported) it must be certified by the appropriate authorized organization as having met a specific standard set according to the needs of a unified Africa.
Unification will allow for the development of economies of scale - whereby there is reduction in the cost per unit of producing or transporting goods through the coordination of two or more manufacturing processes or products.
Unification will allow for coordination of economic efforts to promote balanced economic growth and stability among regions in Africa. It will allow for a managed growth program that ensures ecological considerations and intergenerational concerns are respected, by funding the healthy growth of urban concentrations away from sentive continental ecosystems.
The AUF is working to remove barriers to trade, working to free movement of labor and capital, and working to harmonize African trade, monetary, fiscal and tax policies.
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