Trade Unions in Tanzania - Pre-independence

Pre-independence

The first Tanganyikan trade union, the Motor Drivers' Union, was founded in 1927. In 1937, Asian workers founded the Asiatic Labour Union, leading to the founding of numerous unions in the country. These early organizations were not, however, involved in many industrial conflicts, their primary activity being the organizing of mutual help among its members.

The roots of the modern Tanzanian labor movement reach back to the 1940s. By 1947, five unions had been registered with the authorities. The colonial government reacted to the creation of unions in Tanzania by enacting laws which allowed it to keep tabs on the movement - for example, the registration of unions become obligatory. Nonetheless, the labor movement grew, by 1956 there were 23 organizations with a total of nearly 13,000 members.

In 1955, seventeen trade unions finally merged to create the Tanganyika Federation of Labour (TFL). Its original two main objectives were to gain more members and to absorb smaller unions. During the country's fight for independence, the TFL collaborated with the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU), a party founded in 1954, in its fight for the nation's independence from the United Kingdom achieving this goal in 1961.

The first union in Zanzibar, where the Tanganyikan labor unions were not active, was the Seamen's Union, which was founded in 1955. There had been a strike by the island's dock workers in 1948, but no organized labor movement until 1955. A wave of union foundings followed that of the Seamen's Union, but these organizations did not have many members as Zanzibar was only scarcely populated and the socio-economic activities were few. In 1956, the Federation of Zanzibar and Pemba Trade Unions (ZPFL) was founded with assistance from Tanganyikan unionists. During the first half of the 1960s the Zanzibari labor movement flourished. During the 1964 revolution, the labor movement collaborated with peasants to overthrow the Sultan.