Strikes still Biya's Achilles' heel!.

The negotiations have been like an infinite loop with union leaders representing medical staff, teachers, university lecturers, lawyers, councils, CDC workers and most recently transporters.

As this daily newspaper reported yesterday, leaders of the National Syndicate of Transporters, known by its French language abbreviation SYNATRCAM, have together with other sister unions in the Littoral Region, announced a 30-day suspension to a planned strike action, which was to begin October 12.

At a meeting held at the union's branch office in Akwa, Douala, October 18, leaders of the five unions of road transporters, gave tangible reasons to their colleagues for calling off the strike. 

Speaking at the meeting, union leader, Moise Voukeng, said it was a result of the crisis meeting which they had at the Prime Ministry the previous week.

He said it was a joint meeting with 30 of the union leaders, the Minister of Transport, Jean Ernest Massena Ngalle Bibehe; as well the Secretary General of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security.

Voukeng added that the meeting, which lasted several hours, resulted in the postponement of the cessation of activities of road transporters on October 17.

"We are here today because we had to tell our colleagues what came out from our meeting in Yaounde. It has not been an easy fight. We have been in this for several years, but peacefully, we want our government to see into our problems, so we are also following their rules," Voukeng said.

It should be noted that transporters had on several occasions expressed worries with the provisions of the decree of October 10, 2022, issued by the Prime Minister, Head of Government, laying down the conditions for transporters using roads, especially in border countries like Chad and the Central African Republic, CAR.

The same decree creates new conditions for access to the profession of transport operators. The exercise of this profession is subject, according to this text, to obtaining a license issued by the Ministry of Transport or by decentralised local authorities. The ordinary or special road transport license is issued for a period of five years renewable.

Prior to the meeting at the Prime Ministry, Voukeng revealed that government, through some "gullible unionists", had issued several releases, informing the public that the union had backpedalled on the planned boycott.

Notwithstanding the malevolent behaviour of some members, Voukeng conceded that government was open to listening to their plight and had accepted to build a platform for dialogue.

Accordingly, he called on his counterparts of goodwill in Douala to carry on with their activities as usual as they look forward to favourable resolutions from state officials.

"In view of the goodwill of the government to follow up on the complaints of transporters; in particular the establishment of a working framework which shall lead to the revision of the disputed decree, the union platform, being in a republican posture, decided to suspend the notice for a period of 30 days,” the unionist said.

Hitherto, the information of the called off strike had been made public in a press release dated October 16. 

It read: "Road transporters are invited to continue their activities with calm. Dialogue is being maintained with government, with a view to a definitive settlement of the issues of transporters”. 

Once again, government officials can beat their chests for the suspension of the strike as one of its "Great Achievements". 

But isn't it really a product of a dysfunctional system in which unions most go on strike or threaten to do so before government can scurry to sit with the aggrieved workers to resolve their problems?

In some cases, even in a bloated and obsessed government in which a sector like education, which has been split into some four ministries: Primary, Secondary, Higher and Vocational training to ease administration, President Biya has to occasionally climb down to solve labour disputes. 

The bone of contention with the road transporters is that they have to obtain a different licence issued by the council or transport ministry, valid for five years renewable.

What is the rationale behind such an introduction? Does it not open the way for corruption, which transporters have even had occasion to go on strike because it is pervasive at road checkpoints? If government, for whatever reason, felt there was the need to reform the transporters’ system, why were union leaders not consulted to get their opinion before it was imposed?

Any regime has the preponderant responsibility to serve the governed. That entails consultation and dialogue with concerned groups or professionals before issuing decrees that affect them. 

To do otherwise isn't in tandem with "government of the people and by the people". It is an invitation to strikes which the Biya regime must prevent as much as possible, especially given the lessons from the Anglophone teachers and lawyers, which resulted in a brutal conflict that remains an endless loop of atrocities.