Union strike threat over high cost of living

The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) has threatened to call for a general strike should the government not take action to ease the plight of ordinary Zimbabweans. ZCTU president Lovemore Matombo told IRIN on Thursday that workers were finding it difficult to cope with the high cost of living. Zimbabwe is experiencing an economic crisis exacerbated by a controversial land redistribution programme, a drought that has decimated crops and pushed up cereal food prices and the disputed re-election of President Robert Mugabe. The buying power of most households had fallen as sharply as the value of the Zimbabwean dollar, said Matombo. On Tuesday Mugabe declared a state of disaster throughout the country as figures showed that about 7.8 million people - over five million of them children - would need humanitarian help for the next 18 months as a result of the prevailing drought. Matombo said the cost of living had become "unbearable for workers". He also said the rights and dignity of workers had been infringed by recently promulgated legislation. He said: "Because of the public order and security acts, the freedoms, especially of the unions, has been curtailed. We are saying government must attend to this and actually come in and resolve the high cost of living and [repeal] this draconian act. If this does not happen the ZCTU will be left with no choice but to call for a general strike." Matombo said the general strike would not be aimed at forcing a rerun of the presidential elections and toppling President Mugabe, as was reported by the state-controlled newspaper The Herald. The ZCTU president said a general strike would aim to bring attention to "issues that affect the general working population". The ZCTU has about 250,000 paid up members. Matombo said: "Most of the basic commodities have increased by an average of 52 percent this year. The problem is that unions had completed wage negotiations for the year and did not anticipate such a high increase of these basic commodities. Inflation is at 113 percent and if the economy does not perform maybe we will run into 200 percent inflation by December this year." The minimum wage in Zimbabwe was currently ZW $8 925 (Zimbabwe dollars) or about US $167 at the official rate or US $25 on the parallel market. "With the rise of these basic commodities it requires us to recalculate to factor in those increases, the minimum wage should be as high as ZW $25,000 a month now," Matombo said. It was reported last month that a government gazette raised the maximum retail price of a standard loaf of bread to ZW $60 (US $1.12) from ZW $44 dollars (US $0.82). Meanwhile opposition Movement for Democratic Change leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, appeared in court on Tuesday on charges relating to an alleged plot to assassinate Mugabe. Tsvangirai, Welshman Ncube, the MDC secretary-general and MP for Bulawayo North-East and Renson Gasela, the MP for Gweru Rural were remanded to appear again 31 May at which time a trial date is likely to be set, local newspaper The Daily News reported.