Trade unions across Africa have welcomed the ruling of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) affirming the right to strike under the International Labour Organisation’s Convention No. 87, describing the judgment as a major victory for workers’ freedom, democracy and social justice.
The African Regional Organisation of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC-Africa), in a statement issued from Lomé, Togo, said the ruling reinforced the legitimacy of strike action as a fundamental democratic right that should neither be denied nor weakened. The statement, signed by ITUC-Africa General Secretary Akhator Joel Odigie, noted that labour movements across Africa embraced the decision because it confirmed what workers had defended for generations — that the right to strike is inseparable from freedom of association and trade unionism.
According to the organisation, the labour movement was built through years of struggle, sacrifice and the efforts of countless workers who fought for better conditions. It stressed that key achievements enjoyed by workers today, including fair wages, regulated working hours, workplace safety, maternity protection, pensions, social protection and collective bargaining rights, were secured because workers organised collectively and maintained the power to withdraw their labour when faced with exploitation and injustice.
ITUC-Africa argued that freedom of association would lose its practical meaning if workers were denied the right to take collective industrial action whenever dialogue and negotiations fail. The organisation maintained that a union unable to organise industrial action would become symbolic without real power, insisting that the right to strike is not optional or secondary, but an essential part of trade unionism.
The body further stated that workers do not embark on strikes to destabilise society, but often resort to industrial action as a last measure against exploitation, wage suppression, unsafe working conditions, union repression, inequality and unemployment. It warned that worsening economic hardship, rising living costs, shrinking civic space and insecure employment conditions across Africa have made the defence of strike rights even more important.
ITUC-Africa also linked the right to strike with democratic governance, insisting that no society can genuinely claim to uphold democracy while denying workers the freedom to organise, protest and collectively withdraw their labour. According to the organisation, strong democracies are strengthened when workers are free to organise, bargain collectively and hold governments and employers accountable through lawful industrial action.
The organisation vowed that trade unions across Africa would continue defending the right to strike firmly and consistently.
The ICJ, sitting in The Hague, Netherlands, delivered the landmark advisory opinion by a vote of 10 to four, ruling that the right to strike is protected under the ILO Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87). The ruling followed decades of disagreements within the ILO between workers’ organisations and employers over whether Convention No. 87 implicitly guarantees workers the right to strike.
In its judgment, the court held that the freedom of workers’ organisations to organise their activities and defend workers’ interests includes the right to strike, even though the convention does not specifically mention the word “strike.”
Labour activists and union leaders around the world have already described the opinion as one of the most significant international labour rights decisions in recent history.
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