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Chronicle Reporters/Harare Bureau
WORKERS yesterday marked Workers’ Day at various centres countrywide, but the events were marred by low turnouts.
In Harare, MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai attended the Workers’ Day commemorations organised by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions at Gwanzura Stadium and attempted to turn the event into a political rally, drawing strong criticism from workers.

Tsvangirai was given an opportunity to speak as a former secretary general of the ZCTU, but left many workers unhappy with his conduct after he started speaking about his party’s demands, instead of the welfare of the workers.

“What we’re facing is a deep national crisis,” said Tsvangirai, who appears desperate for support following his unpopular decision to boycott by-elections to be held on June 10 in several constituencies which the party used to hold.

“It’s not only an economic problem, but a political problem. Those who are ruling stole the election that’s why we’re saying we’ll not go to any elections without reforms. We’re saying no reforms, no elections.”

Speaking in interviews after the event, workers at the stadium said Tsvangirai had gone off-side by speaking on issues that had nothing to do with their daily needs.

“What kind of a speech is that?” said Evelyne Moyo of Highfied. “We came here expecting to hear issues concerning our welfare, but Tsvangirai talks about his party and its demands which have nothing to do with bread and butter issues.”

Togarasei Kunaka of Mbare said Tsvangirai had dismally failed to distinguish between a Workers’ Day event and a political rally.

“I think he shouldn’t be invited next time because he has completely abandoned the workers’ cause,” he said. “He came here to please his political handlers and not the workers. But as a former trade unionist he was supposed to know better.”

Another worker who preferred anonymity said workers had nothing to do with the MDC-T’s political demands, but were interested in the betterment of their welfare.

“This was a Workers’ Day celebration and Tsvangirai was supposed to be aware that it wasn’t just members of his party in attendance,” said the worker.

“Definitely, this wasn’t a political event, it was an apolitical event, an event for workers from all political affiliations who gather on this day simply because they have one common denominator, that of being workers.

“Tsvangirai’s attempt to rope us into his party’s agenda gives an impression that he’s not concerned about our welfare.”

After realising that he was going off the mark with his misplaced political utterances during his address, Tsvangirai tried to correct his mistakes by acknowledging that workers had diverse political affiliations.

“Let me return to the political autonomy of the workers movement because it’s the only way it can represent all workers despite political affiliations,” he said.

He went on to blame the government for the xenophobic attacks in South Africa that have resulted in seven deaths, including two Zimbabweans.

In his address to the sparse gathering, ZCTU president George Nkiwane said workers were against proposed amendments to labour laws that would make it easier for employers to hire and fire them.

“We’ve met today as workers under difficult conditions where some are saying our salaries should be cut and that we should have labour market flexibility that will allow employers to easily fire employees,” he said.

Nkiwane urged employees to work together to resolve some of the challenges they are facing and called on employers to take the welfare of workers seriously.

Some of the demands he made included a right to educational leave, access to free Anti-Retrovirals for those living with HIV, poverty datum line linked wages and salaries and resuscitation of the Tripartite Negotiating Forum.

Members of another faction of ZCTU also held their commemorations at Raylton Sports Club in Harare yesterday.

Speaking at the event, the faction’s president Lovemore Matombo expressed concern at the large number of workers being retrenched.

Only a handful of workers turned out at various venues in Bulawayo, Gweru, Masvingo and Victoria Falls for the annual day meant to celebrate workers for their role in society.

In Bulawayo, the commemorations were held at Stanley Square in Makokoba.

The main commemorations, organised by the Zimbabwe Federation of Trade Unions, drew less than 20 workers.

Workers attributed the poor turnout to the politicisation of the labour unions and issues in the country by MDC-T.

Thousands of workers have lost their jobs because of sanctions-induced economic challenges after companies downsized or closed shop completely.

Most of the affected workers are now self-employed in the informal sector.

ZFTU’s celebrations were held under the theme; “Workers united, more informed and ready to embrace the Zim-Asset programme.”

ZFTU president Alfred Makwarimba called on the government to involve workers in the implementation of Zim-Asset as they were key players in the economic turnaround of the country.

“As ZFTU, we urge the Head of State and Government, President Mugabe, through the Minister of Labour, to take stock of his cabinet ministers in areas of performance and delivery. This will help in the realisation of the economic blueprint, Zim-Asset. We encourage the President to put to task his ministers who run key critical ministries to produce results that are short-term based and long term based. It’s our wish to engage all key ministries so that as workers we’ve our input in driving Zim-Asset forward. Workers are strategic players in the economy,” said Makwarimba.

He said workers were unhappy with the looting by management at state enterprises like Air Zimbabwe, ZBC and PSMAS among others.

He urged workers to buy shares in companies and commended President Mugabe for reversing the decision to scrap bonuses for civil servants.
Makwarimba said the workers’ union is engaging all national employment councils to complete negotiations on salaries and wages. He said ZFTU wanted a minimum wage of $300 across all sectors of the economy.

In an interview after the commemorations ZFTU secretary-general Kennias Shamuyarira said they were not concerned about the low turnout at Stanley Square because they were unlike other workers’ unions who have turned the event into a political “rally”.

In Gweru, a ZCTU faction aligned to George Nkiwane started the celebrations late at Mkoba Stadium due to logistical problems where about 500 workers had converged.

Zimbabwe Bankers and Allied Workers Union president, Peter Mutasa who also doubles up as the ZCTU third vice president said workers would continue to exert pressure on the government not to adopt labour market flexibility.

The celebrations which were held under the theme: “Workers Under Siege: Arise and Fight On” focused on workers welfare both in the private sector and government.

“We categorically say no to labour market flexibility because this will give the employers the right to hire and fire workers willy-nilly. Labour market flexibility means that workers will be at the mercy of employers and it also means that it would now be difficult to access loans from banks.”

He said they opposed unjustified retrenchment of workers when managers earned huge salaries.

At Stanley Primary School, the other faction held its commemorations under the theme, “Workers united against unemployment, corruption and a failing economy.”

In Masvingo, the Workers’ Day commemorations were poorly attended as less than 20 people turned up for the George-Nkiwane-led ZCTU at Mucheke Stadium.

Progressive Teachers’ Union in Zimbabwe (PTUZ), an affiliate to the ZCTU led by Lovemore Matombo also failed to hold any celebrations in Masvingo citing financial challenges.

The labour movement distributed T-shirts inscribed “No to Xenophobia”.

The United Food and Allied Workers Union of Zimbabwe (UFAWUZ) held their commemorations in Bulawayo City Centre yesterday. Less than 30 people turned up for the event. UFAWUZ represents workers from the milling, brewery, baking and meat processing sectors.

Workers complained about long working hours and poor remuneration.

Representatives from different sectors said that workers in Zimbabwe felt enslaved as the employers led posh lifestyles at their expense.

In Victoria Falls workers snubbed the Workers’ Day celebrations organised by the ZCTU.

According to the programme, celebrations were supposed to start at 7.30AM and end at 12.30pm at Chinotimba Stadium where ZCTU Hwange district chairman Jethro Tshabalala was supposed to read the national speech.

By 2PM, the programme had not started as there were only a handful people, about 30, including the trade union’s organising team.

The organisers tried to lure people from the nearby Chinotimba suburb by bringing a traditional dance group called Nyau (izigure) but only a group of children came. This resulted in the group walking out of the stadium before performing.

Tshabalala could be seen running around trying to organise some people to no avail. The few who were in the stadium were served some beer.

Some DJs who had been hired to provide entertainment spent the day playing music to an almost empty stadium while the organising team resorted to using the public address system to invite people.

“Come all of you, let’s celebrate together. Whether you’re selling tomatoes or anything, come, today is your day,” said a ZCTU member on the PA system.

Tshabalala was adamant that the poor turnout was not a sign of workers’ loss of confidence in the MDC-aligned trade union, as he remained hopeful that people would come even after the initially scheduled time.

“We were looking forward to having people gathering at 8AM but the problem is that Victoria Falls is a tourist destination where people are employed in hotels and become busy on holidays. We wanted Amakhishi dance group to entertain people but because of financial problems we couldn’t bring more groups,” he said, suggesting financial constraints for the western-sponsored union.

The celebrations were being held under the theme “Workers siege, arise and fight on.”

Tshabalala said ZCTU would continue fighting for labour law reforms to challenge late payments and seasonal employment, which he termed a return of the slave trade.

By 2PM, he had not read the keynote speech as there were only a few people to listen to him.