Their Buea meeting was the third in a series to instil harmony for a better social climate. A dozen of workers’ syndicates from Fako Division met recently to brainstorm on the social climate, staff-representatives elections of 2011, and the assessment of resolutions taken in their previous come-together.The four-hour long deliberation, that took the twist of a workshop, was chaired by Marie Catherine Kalati Lobe, South West Regional Delegate of Labour and Social Security in the Conference Hall of the Delegation. Issues were raised sector after sector for a better coverage of the Division that comes only third in Cameroon as a hub of labour after Wouri ( Douala ) and Mfoundi ( Yaounde ). Unionists came from such syndicates as CCATU, CDL, FAUITS, SRPF, CCTU, SNEFBEFCAM, SYNDTRARAF, SYNAPMOTAC, DDLSS, and SN.CHAUTAC. Veteran Vewesee CPN and vibrant Ngale Ngomba of SONARA’s CCTU among others made valuable inputs.Tackling the point of social climate, the unionists highlighted the pending negotiation at the Limbe Oil Refinery Company (SONARA) where staff and management began an in-house bargain (company agreement) for salary advantages but which talks have frozen for some time now. The unionists reported the acquisition of some 150 driving licences for motor-taxi drivers in Fako as a means of control in a sector plagued with disorder. The University of Buea support-staff union decried unpaid leave claims for the past three years and their lack of status unlike the university teaching staff. The various syndicates expressed worry over what they called “taxation of end-of career benefits for retired workers”. Still on the social climate, the unionists urged for the intensification of inspection of enterprises by Labour Inspectors to enable assessment of on-the-field difficulties faced by the workers. For example, they condemned the nonchalance of employers who refuse to provide offices for staff delegates against the provisions of the labour code.Other malaises exposed in Fako include what they called poor classification of workers in the agricultural sector where physical exhaustion is rife with banana plantation workers leaving their homes as early as 4:30 am and returning many times at 11 pm. The unionists reiterated the clandestine transportation plaguing Fako even by members of the Forces of Law and Order putting regular transporters redundant despite the professional taxes they have to pay.