Strike confusion

Confusion has surrounded a strike call last week by Zimbabwe’s civil servants to back their demand for a 20 percent cost-of-living increase, a trade union official told IRIN on Monday. The Public Sector Association (PSA) announced the strike last Wednesday after the government failed to meet its deadline for the increment. But the partially-heeded strike action was called off on Thursday at the request of the acting Minister of labour, John Nkomo, as a precondition for talks. However, teachers continued with industrial action on Friday, forcing school closures, and were backed by some nurses. On Saturday, the PSA leadership scaled-down its demand to 12 percent, but the ministry of labour offered only a 10 percent rise. A cabinet meeting on Tuesday is due to discuss the issue, a Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) official told IRIN. The situation has been complicated by divisions within the PSA, the official added. The leadership had originally set 21 June as the deadline for the government to comply with it’s 20 percent cost-of-living demand, “but because of pressure from the membership the strike started on Wednesday, but not in all sectors.” The small Progressive Teacher’s Union, kicked out of the Saturday meeting at the insistence of the government, are still boycotting classes, the ZCTU official said.