In most African countries, structural adjustment programs constituted the context of industrial relations conflicts during the 1980s because they had a negative effect on social and working conditions. This study discusses African labour’s responses to its deteriorating conditions, and to states’ attempts to limit labour’s demands. It concludes that structural adjustment programs were implemented in all African countries despite labour’s resistance. The degree of implementation depended on governments’ repressive capabilities, workers’ traditions of striving for independent organizations, and on unions’ perceptions of the issue and their responsibilities under prolonged economic crises.