Civil service unions threaten more demonstrations
Posted on March 10, 2010 | Category: Politics; Business, Sport
Leaders from the various civil service unions have resolved to begin a
series of hunger strikes and other forms of protest, at the offices of the
Public Service Commission, until their wage demands are addressed. The
President of the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe, Takavafira Zhou,
told Newsreel that despite state workers officially returning to work on
Tuesday ‘they were only going back to sharpen their instruments of combat’
and the return did not mean an end to their 4 week strike.
‘We have agreed that the industrial action continues but it must now take on
a new dimension involving the leadership,’ Zhou told us. He accused the
government of deliberately avoiding the unions and this he says is why they
will focus on the Public Service Commission offices in Harare. ‘We want to
invite ourselves into their offices and tell them we will not disperse until
and unless we have that meeting,’ he said. Some of the leaders have vowed
not to eat any food until then.
Civil servants are demanding a basic monthly salary of US$630, but the
government says it is broke and cannot afford to offer such increments. The
unions have countered by pointing to the controversial diamond wealth that
is being plundered by members of the army and other loyalists in Mugabe’s
inner-circle. Zhou told us they needed a meeting with government, to try and
finalize the matter either way. This he said would clear the way to ‘refer
the issue for arbitration,’ if the two parties could not agree.
Meanwhile Newsreel has also been told civil servants are planning a
countrywide demonstration on the 16th March, to coincide with the opening of
parliament. Zhou appealed to teachers in Harare take part in a march on
parliament as they seek to get MP’s to tackle their concerns. Other
demonstrations across the country will target all institutions that they
view as working against them.
» Filed Under Politics; Business, Sport
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