The Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), a German labour movement, has called on the Mineworkers Union of Zambia (MUZ) to take keen interest in the welfare of their workers at their work places.
FES Programme Manager Kathy Short said MUZ should not only concentrate on bargaining for their workers while abandoning their welfare.
Ms. Short, who was speaking at a two days workshop Kitwe today, observed that the unions have in the recent past concentrated on bargaining for salary increment for their workers forgetting the workers welfare at the work place.
ZANIS Kitwe reports that Ms. Short said the union must develop interest to look at the environment of a working place.
She called upon MUZ to ensure that the investors that have come to work in Zambian mines look at the environment seriously to protect workers and the people living in these mining areas.
Ms. Short appealed to MUZ to take a leading role in making sure that workers in the mines were taken care of by providing a good environment for them.
She said investors should not only have interest of making huge profits but should also make sure that the social cooperate responsibility was passed on to the local people.
Ms. Short further said her organization was however happy with the Mineworkers Union of Zambia for the good relationship that has been existing between the union and FES since the 1960s.
She further said FES was committed to work with the labour movement in the country for the interest of the workers.
Ms. Short called on MUZ to remain united for the betterment of the workers in the mining industry.
And speaking earlier, MUZ Deputy General Secretary Joseph Chewe appealed to participants drawn from all its branches to take keen interest in learning so that they can educate their employees and the general membership on the effects of environment and climate change in their work places.
Mr. Chewe called on participants to pay a lot of attention on environmental change in the industrial workplaces.
ZANIS
Good advice. In fact all the UNIONS are to blame. They only concenrate on Salary Negotiations and then later GO to sleep. when a worker is suspended on flimsy ground, the UNION do NOT jump in to help. Or un fairly dismissed, they never help with legal representation. These UNIONS MUZ, NUMAW and the rest even exploit workers in their UNION shops. They hike prices to astronomical levels. Exploiting their very workers.
It is the same salary increment focus that has to be blamed for commodification of labour in Zambia. Most union leaders are just vocal (vuvuzela) puppets that have zero understanding of occupation psychology, industrial relations, and labour laws.
That’s why we are calling all miners to join UMUZ, coz it’s a union for workers which will actually look into the welfare of it’s members.If someone from germany can see that MUZ and NUMAW have gone to sleep, whatmore us miners who are seeing everything.VIVA UMUZ.