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12 January, 2009
Representatives of the ICEM affiliate, Associated Mineworkers Union of Zimbabwe (AMWZ), will meet with the Chamber of Mines on Thursday 15 January, to put forward their demand to be paid in United States dollars instead of local currency.
Workers are ready to down tools if they receive their next salary payment in Zimbabwe dollars. “Mineworkers are reeling in poverty and are starving because they are being paid in local currency when almost everything is being charged in US dollars,” stated AMWZ president Tinago Ruzive. “The situation is quite bad. If we are not paid in United States dollars, we will go on a collective job action.”
The mining industry in Zimbabwe is in a near-critical condition, especially in the gold sector where the Reserve Bank is said to owe miners at least US$30 million backdated to 2007. Mining industry management has called the union’s ultimatum irrational and unrealistic, considering the current crisis. Ruzive responded, arguing that workers have the right to a decent wage.
Salaries in the local currency do not represent a decent wage as it is no longer being accepted for commercial purposes. This near total dollarization of the economy has rendered the local currency virtuously worthless.
Should the miners decide to strike, they will join the country’s teachers and nurses who have been on strike since late 2008.