This was due, in part, to the small size of its industrial working force (which was estimated to number 15,583 in 1957), but more importantly because the Ethiopian government viewed any type of organized protest as a form of insurrection.
[4]: 147 Although the 1955 constitution guaranteed the right to form workers' associations, it was not until 1962 that the Ethiopian government issued the Labor Relations Decree, which authorized trade unions.
The absence of a national constituency, coupled with other problems such as corruption, embezzlement, election fraud, ethnic and regional discrimination, and inadequate finances, prevented CELU from challenging the status quo in the industrial sector.
[5] This militancy peaked with the successful general strike of 7–11 March 1975, which not only led to salary and pension increases, but played an important role in the Ethiopian Revolution and helped to discredit the regime of Emperor Haile Selassie.
[4]: 177 Although many of its members supported the overthrow of Emperor Haile Selassie, the CELU came to ally itself with the radical intelligentsia in pressuring the Derg to share power.
[4]: 218 Despite numerous strikes in and around Addis Ababa, which sometimes ended in bloody confrontations, on May 19, 1975, the Derg temporarily closed CELU headquarters on the grounds that the union needed to be reorganized.
After battling one another for most of the year, the Derg at last decreed a curfew and martial law on 30 September, and arrested 1,500 union members; although the CELU responded with a general strike, it failed to gather support in the main industrial sectors.
The government maintained that the AETU's purpose was to educate workers about the need to contribute their share to national development by increasing productivity and building socialism.
[5] In 1978 the Derg replaced the AETU executive committee after charging it with political sabotage, abuse of authority, and failure to abide by the rules of democratic centralism.
The Ethiopian government attempted to mediate the dispute, but the employer refused to cooperate; the case was expected to be referred to the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs later that year.