The Secretary General of the Central Organization for Trade Unions (COTU), Francis Atwoli, has angrily come out to respond to news that COTU had lost over 2 million members.
Atwoli said in a statement that a Ministry of Land report placing the number of workers covered by Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBAs) at 16,100 was politically motivated.
The COTU boss said that the findings of the economic performance study submitted to the General Wages Advisory Council (GWAC) and the Agricultural Wages Advisory Council (AWAC) in the Economic Position Paper were based on inaccurate and doctored data.
“In the said politically motivated analysis, the ministry claimed that the employees covered steadily declined from 367,000 in 2016 to 16,100 in 2020. This is purely 2022 elections’ politics taylor-made to incite our members,” he wrote.
“There are currently2,356,406 working Kenyans who are covered by CBAs as negotiated by the various unions under the COTU (K) umbrella while more than two million Kenyan workers benefit from the agreements indirectly,” he noted.
While conceding that the epidemic that struck the country in 2020 may have had an impact on the union’s membership, the statistics have improved since the government eased containment restrictions.
He claimed the data was intentionally misleading because it came at a time when the union was planning to negotiate for a minimum wage increase in preparation for Labor Day celebrations on May 1.
“As we prepare to negotiate, COTU (K) would like to allay fears by Kenyan workers that the much-awaited minimum wage will not materialise.
“Guided by research that indicates a rise in economic performance but equally a rise in inflation which has eroded the purchasing power of Kenyan workers, we will ensure that Kenyan workers get what they deserve during the negotiations,” Atwoli declared.
