Trade unions in Tanzania

[4] In 1955, seventeen trade unions finally merged to create the Tanganyika Federation of Labour (TFL).

In 1956, the Federation of Zanzibar and Pemba Trade Unions (ZPFL) was founded with assistance from Tanganyikan unionists.

[5] Although the joint efforts of the TANU and the TFL resulted in Tanzanian independence from the United Kingdom, trade unions presented what Edwin Babeiya has framed as "direct confrontation with the post independence TANU government over various issues such as Africanization and trade unions' autonomy.

[2] As mentioned above, the situation in the early 1960s in Zanzibar, which had merged with Tanganyika to form Tanzania in 1964, was similar.

[5] In 1977, the ruling parties of Zanzibar and mainland Tanzania, the TANU and the ASP merged to form Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM).

The Union of Tanzanian Workers or Jumuiya ya Wafanyakazi Tanzania (JUWATA) was thus founded in the following year.

It continued the NUTA's tradition of complete loyalty to the ruling party,[2] but covered all of Tanzania, including Zanzibar, although the government of the region was reluctant to allow unionist activity to resume on the island.

[5] Following an economic crisis in the early 1980s, growing pressure for trade union autonomy in conjunction with the country's transition to a multi-party system in 1990 led to the JUWATA's dissolution and the founding of the Organisation of Tanzania Trade Unions (OTTU) in 1992.

[2] After the President broke a promise to raise salaries in the country in 1993, the OTTU conducted a successful strike from March 1 to 3 showing that the union was no longer controlled by the government.

The Registrar, which is responsible for administrating the provisions of the act may, however, cancel or refuse the registration of a union.