Zim labour union pushes for salaries in forex

HARARE – The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) is pushing for workers to be paid in hard currency, with union leader Lovemore Matombo warning of fresh protests by workers if employers refuse to peg wages in hard currency.

Matombo, president of the ZCTU, told ZimOnline that the union’s decision making general council will meet next Saturday “to solidify our earlier position that we negotiate (new wages) in foreign currency”.

“If authorities say they have no confidence in the (local) currency who are we to have confidence in it,” said Matombo, referring to a decision by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe last year to allow selected shops to charge for basic commodities in American dollars.

He said: “The general council will sit on January 17 to solidify our earlier position that we negotiate in foreign currency. We have to look at what the PDL (poverty datum line or bread line) is before we discuss.

“We will discuss our next course of action but I do see workers demonstrating against price hikes in the near future, we will use our usual actions to make companies pay in foreign currency.”

With its value eroded daily by the world’s highest inflation of more than 231 million percent, the Zimbabwe dollar is nearly worthless and both consumers and traders are increasingly shunning the currency in favour of hard cash.

A collapsed currency is the most visible sign of Zimbabwe’s deepening economic and humanitarian crisis that is also seen in acute shortages of food and basic commodities, amid a cholera epidemic that has killed more than 1 700 people since last August.

Zimbabweans had hoped a power-sharing government between President Robert Mugabe and opposition leaders Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara would ease the political situation and allow the country to focus on reviving the collapsed economy.

The three political rivals agreed on September 15 to form an all-inclusive government under a power-sharing deal that retains Mugabe as president while making Tsvangirai prime minister and Mutambara deputy prime minister.

But the agreement brokered by former South African President Thabo Mbeki on behalf of the regional SADC alliance immediately stalled as Mugabe and his main opponent, Tsvangirai, wrangled over who should control key ministries and other top government posts.

Tsvangirai and his MDC party meet on January 18 – a day after the ZCTU’s general council meeting – to review the stalled power-sharing deal. The MDC has insisted it will not join the unity government until all outstanding issues on Cabinet and other top government posts are resolved.

While analysts agree that Mugabe and Tsvangirai probably resent each other too much to be able to form a successful partnership, however they say there is little viable option to resolving Zimbabwe’s crisis outside a power-sharing government. – ZimOnline

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