ZCTU to stage protests over economic meltdown

via ZCTU to stage protests over economic meltdown – DailyNews Live 26 March 2015

HARARE – Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) has resolved to stage demonstrations on April 11, to protest against the economic meltdown.

Japhet Moyo, ZCTU secretary-general, told the Daily News yesterday that the general council met last week and resolved to take to the streets.

“In the meeting, we decided that we are going to demonstrate in six regional centres in the country. The format we are going to use is that we are going to march from our regional offices and follow an agreed path with police to give our petition to the ministry of Labour,” said Moyo.

“Obviously, if what we are proposing is not taken aboard by authorities it might be the beginning. My point is we might demonstrate in the near future again if our needs are not addressed,” added Moyo.

He went on to say workers in the country have a lot of complaints which the government has failed to address.

Moyo also said the decision to demonstrate came after the ZCTU leadership met workers all over the country and a consensus was reached that they have to take to the streets and register their displeasure.

“I need to indicate that ZCTU has been over the past four months consulting wildly, the president of ZCTU and his team met workers in all six regions and further went down and we met the districts,’’ he said.

“We were trying to find out how best we, as labour movement, can respond to amongst other issues the decaying economy, public utterances by certain authorities who are clearly undermining certain processes, as an example when the government talks about cutting wages this interferes with collective bargaining.”

He said governments’ pronouncements were causing problems with the employers.

Moyo also said ZCTU was not happy with the courts’ ruling that workers can be dismissed on notice.

“We are not happy with these public utterances and judgments from courts that workers can be dismissed on notice. This means they can be sent home without retrenchment packages,” he said adding that the police had been notified of the demonstrations.

The country over the last few weeks has been hit by a wave of demonstrations as unrest swells over the economic collapse.

This comes as Zanu PF has failed to fulfil its electoral promises of growing the economy and creating two million jobs. President Robert Mugabe, whose trips have so far gobbled up millions, has come under fire from opposition parties who say his trips are not only immoral but a gross dereliction of duty.