//REPEATING//LABOUR-BENIN: Stakeholders Count Losses Incurred During Strike

By Ali Idrissou-Toure Reprint | | Print |

Ali Idrissou-Toure

COTONOU, Nov 12 1999 (IPS) - Stakeholders in Benin are counting the losses incurred during last week’s labour unrest.

The three-day strike (Nov 2-4) by customs agents was responsible for the loss in revenue of more than 500 million CFA francs per day, according to an official from one of the agents’ two unions.

One US Dollar is equal to 600 CFA francs.

But Abdoulaye Bio Tchane, Benin’s Minister of Finance and Economy, in an interview with a Cotonou newspaper, said the losses were more than that revealed by the unions.

“Economically, customs duties, taxes, bring in to the treasury an average of 900 million CFA francs a day”, he said.

Most customs units nationwide appeared to have observed the strike, especially at the port and airport of Cotonou, the country’s economic hub.

Emmanuel Zinkpe, secretary-general of the National Union of Customs Workers (SYNTRAD), said merchandise remained in the warehouse during the unrest.

To ease the situation, during the strike, some airport officials were assigned to inspect traveller baggage, a job normally handled by customs officials.

Only two shipments of perishable goods received special permission to be picked up from the port, according to sources close to customs administration.

Sinkpe said customs operations at the port alone net the government between 300 and 400 million CFA francs each day, a figure representing 85 percent of the customs receipts for the entire country.

The activities of trucking and storage companies at the port were also paralysed as a result of the unions’ strike.

The labour action was a gesture of solidarity with Benin’s five main civil service labour organisations, who recently embarked on strike to demand salary increment.

The two customs unions, among others, demanded the immediate cancellation of an Aug 17 presidential decree which created an “ad hoc commission in charge of investigating the existence of a smuggling ring among customs workers at the port of Cotonou”.

According to the unions, the commission is composed not only of people unfamiliar with customs procedures, but also with those who meddle in their work. They accused the commission of being responsible for the 2 billion CFA francs drop in receipts for the month of September alone.

The unions also are demanding that “the execution of control and inspection operations” be carried out in the future “exclusively by the department of General Finance Inspection”.

Before the labour unrest, President Mathieu Kerekou threatened to sack all the striking customs officials if they went ahead with their strike. He did not.