The Shop and Distributive Trade Senior Staff Association (SHOPDIS) said it has lost over 300 of its members due to the shutdown of factories and downsizing by some companies in the last five years.

The union lamented that economic challenges hinged on a harsh operating environment, forex scarcity, high energy cost, among others, which have forced some member companies to shut down operations, while others have massively reduced their staff strength to stay afloat.

National President of SHOPDIS, Ajibola Azeez, said this during a basic organising training, sponsored by Union Network International (UNI) Africa with funding from Union to Union of Sweden, to strengthen collective bargaining and inclusion of women and young workers in the democratic movement.

Mentioning some of the companies, he said that in some of them, about 133 of their members were retrenched, in others, over 50, thereby leading to an economic challenge that has negatively impacted and adversely affected his members.

However, to ensure the union stands and those behind are groomed to keep the union afloat, he said there was a need for the training through organising.

“If we are losing members, how do we regain them? We can only do this by organising what we are doing today. We are grooming those behind us on how to organise. If you don’t have the power of organising, you won’t be able to do anything with your affiliates. Unionism is about organising,” he said.

The union’s acting General Secretary, Olarenwaju Babatunde, said that with more shops (supermarkets) springing up, there is a need to work with the management to increase the union’s organisational effectiveness.

He said the expectation is to train members on basic organising techniques to increase their organisational relevance and for them to know their rights in the various affiliates and strengthen themselves in the labour laws.

“Most affiliates in our sector are not willing to allow us to unionise, so with this training, we want to re-strategise, go back to the drawing board and see how we can recruit more people, especially women and young workers.

“The training encompasses not just the organising techniques, but they will have the ability to organise campaigns and collective bargaining and gender equality,” he said.

Giving an overview of the organising project, Sandi Mtshemla of UNI Africa, said the training was encouraged for workers to organise and increase their membership with the willpower to improve their working conditions.