"United, organised and trained we are invincible!"

Helen Yuill, Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign, interviews Orlando José Mercado Mendoza who is appearing at Latin America 2010 about how informal sector workers are organising and the new spaces created for them under the recently elected FSLN government.

Helen and Orlando

Orlando Mercado is Secretary of the Confederación de Trabajadores por Cuenta Propia (CTCP) in Nicaragua. From its formation in 2002 the membership has grown to 40,000 and the Confederation now coordinates a network of informal sector unions throughout Central America. As Orlando points out, this is a great achievement but, with an estimated one million workers engaged in informal sector activity in the country, there is much to be done.

Informal sector work comprises many different activities. Orlando Mercado is General Secretary of the Currency Exchangers Federation, one of seven federations which unite to form the CTCP. Workers could be street traders, traffic lights vendors, craftspeople, tricyle taxi drivers, agricultural workers, rubbish pickers or tortilla producers. As well as running training workshops in union organising and labour rights, the CTCP also run workshops aimed at raising workers’ self esteem and provide training in business administration and literacy. The union is also fighting for greater recognition of the valuable contribution they make to the economy.

Orlando emphasised that self employed work is growing in Nicaragua and worldwide. Although over 65 per cent of Nicaragua’s workforce are working within the informal sector, between 1990 and 2006, under successive neoliberal governments they were largely ignored. When the current FSLN government was elected in 2007, they were finally given formal recognition. As most workers in the sector are not covered by social security the union has set up mutual health funds allowing access to cheaper medication and health promotion. International support has been important to this work and a number of external organisations, including UNISON from the UK, have supported their activities.

Through the union, members are enabled to act collectively to oppose evictions. In a protest in early 2009 unionised workers from the different unions within the CTCP mobilised in solidarity with the currency changers to protest their eviction by a local supermarket, blocking entrances and bringing sales to a standstill. The owners were forced to negotiate and the union achieved an agreement that they could stay, something they have had to fight for since 1990.

As Orlando points out, ‘In the UK you are learning about informal sector workers and how we are organising. In other parts of the world people do this kind of work too but it’s hidden. This is a country that is starting to know about our work and what we do for the economy in our country.  The CTCP works with the hungry, dispossessed and forgotten. We are not afraid to mobilise because it is the only way to defend our right to work. Our work can only happen through solidarity between our members. This is why the CTCP has the slogan: UNIDOS, ORGANIZADOS Y CAPACITADOS SEREMOS INVENCIBLES! United, organised and trained we are invincible!’