20 August, 2009IMF affiliate makes serious gains for Zimbabwean workers and their families.
ZIMBABWE: The National Engineering Workers' Union, affiliate of the IMF, and Zimbabwe Metal, Energy and Allied Workers' Union have launched a campaign this month to force employers to pay workers decent wages.
In September 2008, history was made in Zimbabwe when three political parties, including the ruling ZANU/PF, signed a power-sharing agreement called the GLOBAL AGREEMENT. This agreement promotes power sharing between the three parties. While many ordinary Zimbabweans argue the agreement has not benefited them, for metalworkers and their families things are changing.
After the agreement was reached, the new minister of finance announced that the official trading currency in Zimbabwe will be US Dollars and other foreign currencies such as South African RANDS and Botswana Pula, however many companies continue paying workers with the valueless ZIM Dollar or in many cases fail to pay workers at all.
In April NEWU won an arbitration award that compels employers to increase workers' minimum salaries from US$100 to US$150. This was a big victory for many workers, however a large number of employers are still resisting compliance. Due to the lack of enforcement of the award, the unions have launched the campaign and are directly engaging with employers to ensure payment of the increased wages.
The increases are changing lives in Zimbabwe as many workers and their family can at least now afford a decent meal of their choice, as compared with six months ago when they were paid by food parcels. One worker commented that even though $100 is still very little, it is much better than been paid by food parcels of low quality; now he can choose better quality food for his family.
For the union the situation is also getting better as 50 per cent of employers are submitting subscriptions to the union and the union is able to pay allowances for some of their staff members. Nevertheless, the situation is still not normal, especially for the other unions. For ZMEAWU the majority of the companies they are organizing are owned by local businesses and these are the same people who are supporting the Mugabe regime and they therefore do not want to deduct subscription from workers on behalf of the union.