Strike wave hits Zimbabwe
By Norm Dixon
Workers in some of Zimbabwe's lowest paying jobs have embarked on a wave of strikes to win wage increases of up to 50%. Employers have responded with intransigence and violence, while the Mugabe government has declared strikes illegal and "premature".
Security guards, hotel and restaurant workers, building workers, bank clerks, railway workers, clothing workers and those employed in the cement and lime plants are or have been on strike. Postal workers have just ended a work-to-rule campaign.
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions estimates that 70% of Zimbabwe's 1.2 million workers earn less than US$75 a month, far less than the $227 a month poverty line.
Security guards, who earn the equivalent of just US$67 a month, are on strike demanding a 50% rise. On July 10, the manager of a security firm opened fire on strikers, wounding 18, one seriously. Police also arrested 30 building workers.
On July 12, thousands of striking workers and their supporters demonstrated in Africa Unity Square in central Harare, singing and dancing, while hundreds of riot police looked on.