The Ethiopian Labour Movement, 1960-2020: Trade Unions, Collective Action, and Wage Determination

This book offers a comprehensive history of the Ethiopian labour movement, exploring the impact of trade unions and workers’ militancy from the 1960s onwards. The author analyses the sharp variation in the orientation and vicissitudes of the labour movement over time, and how these have affected labour conditions and wages. Drawing from new data gathered through extensive archival research in Ethiopia and abroad, this book is the first of its kind. It presents new datasets on strikes, unrest and wage levels, shedding light on how capitalist labour and industrial relations have developed in Ethiopia. Addressing a huge gap in the literature on African labour movements, this book makes a significant contribution to debates on trade unionism, workers’ agency and wage determination in peripheral capitalist settings, and challenges existing assumptions through detailed investigation.

Samuel Andreas Admasie is based at the International Institute of Social History in the Netherlands. Previously, he studied Political Science at Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia and African Studies at Leiden University in the Netherlands. He has also worked as a research advisor at the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency and is on the editorial board of the journal, Labor History.