Organizing the informal economy as part of the trade union movement in Kenya and Tanzania

This working paper examines the ongoing and contested reconceptualizing of who is to be represented by the trade union movement in Tanzania and Kenya. In order to include informal workers, a new and broader understanding of who a worker is becomes necessary, but this in turn poses difficult questions about rights, entitlements, representation and distribution of resources and political power – both within the trade union movement and in the broader societal context. Using original interview data, the working paper reveals different trade union strategies towards balancing the dilemmas posed by including informal workers into the trade union movement with some distinguishable patterns related to differences in the nature of the employment relations of the informal workers. Overall, while efforts are made to emphasize that informal workers are indeed workers – with a view to increasing union membership informal – workers are at the same time considered to be different and in addition a potential threat to the coherence and established order of the union movement.