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12 December, 2011National Executive Members of the National Engineering Workers Union (NEWU) and the Zimbabwe Metal Energy and Allied Workers Union (ZMEAWU) met in November 2011 to evaluate progress towards a merger and the level of cooperation that they have achieved.
ZIMBABWE: NEWU and ZMEAWU signed a memorandum of understanding to work towards a merger in 2009, soon after the formation of ZMEAWU, which was born out of the merger of a number of unions. The memorandum of understanding provided for a number of areas of cooperation such as in education and training, skills development, promotion of occupational health and safety, organizing and recruitment as well as industrial research and the development of HIV/AIDS programmes.
The unions have worked together on the development of resource material, held joint educational activities and recruitment drives, and have assisted one another on sector level dispute resolution. In October 2011, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) facilitated a workshop for staff of the two unions to devise practical approaches that can be taken at an organisational level to ensure that the merger is a success.
The unions recognise that merging will make them stronger to address worker concerns with one voice. They also acknowledge the 2006 ZCTU resolution on mergers, which calls on unions with similarities in industrial operations, collective bargaining, administration and socio-economic challenges to merge for the creation of fewer but larger and hence stronger and more viable union.
Article by Lovemore Mazenge, General Secretary of NEWU