Confederation of Ethiopian Labor Unions

The Confederation of Ethiopian Labor Unions (CELU) was an umbrella organization that represented a number of labor unions and employee self-help associations in Ethiopia. The Derg, the military junta which ruled Ethiopia at the time, banned the organization and replaced it with the All-Ethiopian Trade Union 8 January 1977.

Although the 1955 constitution guaranteed the right to form workers' associations, it was not until 1962 that the Ethiopian government issued the Labor Relations Decree, which authorized trade unions. The next year, the imperial authorities recognized the CELU, which at the beginning represented twenty-two industrial labor groups. By 1973 the Confederation had 167 affiliates with approximately 80,000 members, which represented only about 30 percent of all eligible workers. The CELU drew its membership from not only the railway workers, but included workers at the Addis Ababa Fiber Mills, Indo-Ethiopian Textiles, Wonji Sugar Plantation, Ethiopian Airlines and General Ethiopian Transport (also known as the Anbassa Bus Company). The Ottaways note that the formation of a national labor organization, when only 27,000 people were employed in the manufacturing sector "was one of the paradoxes of Ethiopian politics at the time." They assert that the formation of CELU "can best be explained in terms of the country's foreign relations. A long time adherent to the International Labour Organization's charter, Emperor Haile Selassie apparently found it increasingly difficult not to respect it in practice, particularly at a time when he was trying to establish himself as a central figure in independent Africa."

However, during the 1960s the CELU failed to exert a serious challenge to the economic status quo for a number of reasons. One was that most of the membership were "white collar workers in such organizations as banks, insurance companies and airlines" who had little in common with their industrial counterparts. As a result, the CELU "did not seriously attempt before the revolution to establish a minimum wage." Other were flaws in the organization, which Edward Keller lists as including "corruption, embezzlement, election fraud, ethnic and regional discrimination, and insufficient finances. Seleshi Sisaye indicates that less than 40 percent of CELU's regular members paid dues. Annual revenues from dues averaged less than US$3,000. This forced CELU to rely on contributions from such international labor organizations as the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, the All-African Labor Congress, and the International Labour Organization to finance its operations." Further, when the CELU had attempted to flex its power in two general strikes in 1964 and 1970, both times it had failed to secure the necessary widespread support. Despite these problems, the Ottaways note that when the Ethiopian Revolution erupted, "as the largest organization representing any of the new social groups and classes, it was a potential force to be reckoned with." Rene Lefort observes that the Conferation "wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to increase the power of their organization. They launched a vast recruitment campaign (in two weeks the number of trade-union members rose by 40% to reach 120,000, according to CELU)".

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