Trade unions in Senegal

During the 1930s Popular Front government of France, limited union legalisation was extended to French subjects in West Africa.

[2] In the year and a half after limited unionisation rights were granted to colonial subjects and residents of the Four Communes alike (from May to November 1937), 42 professional unions had been created in Senegal.

This rapid development included the creation of an all-African trade union confederation for the Dakar area in 1938.

[3] In 1947 railroad workers went on a several-month strike on the Dakar-Niger Railway to obtain the same rights as the French railwaymen.

Although the relative number of union members is small, they have considerable political power due to their control of vital segments of the economy.