Maravi

Police force striking miners back to work

Police force striking miners back to work
Written by Mutuna Chanda in Kitwe
Friday, May 29, 2009 4:52:03 PM

POLICE officers on Wednesday forced miners to go underground at Non Ferrous Metals Corporation Africa (NFCA) Mining in Chambishi after they refused to work, sources at the mine have disclosed.

Sources said the workers planned a protest after learning that their salaries had not been increased and that the notches that were awarded to them were low.

The sources said when management learnt of the protest that was supposed to have ended in a strike, they decided to call in police to force the miners who were taking over from the night-shift workers on Wednesday morning to go underground and work.

"Sometime back about a month or two ago, employees wanted salary increments because the salaries are just too low,” one of the sources said. “The company promised that instead of salary increments, they would give workers notches and those notches were expected this month, May. So when employees got their pays, they found that the notches were at K20,000 so they got upset that the notches were just too low."

The source said that the low notches angered workers who refused to go underground and wrote posters indicating that they intended to go on strike.

"When management learnt of this they did all they could to curtail it," the source said.

Other sources indicated that some police officers with short batons were forcing day-shift workers to go underground.

"There was even a threat from management that those who would not go underground would be fired," the source said.

They also said that some workers' notches were as low as K2,000, backdated to four months ago.

The workers complained of being oppressed at the mine.

And when contacted, both NFCA deputy chief executive officer in charge of human resources Gao Xiang and corporate affairs director Xu Ruiyong could not answer questions on the issue.

Gao referred queries to Xu.

"I have no information,î said Gao. ìI am not at the mine, you can call Mr Xu."

And Xu said he could not provide an answer for the questions regarding the happenings on Wednesday.

"On this one, I cannot answer you,” said Xu. “I was not in my office; I cannot answer you. You have to find someone else."

Labels: MINERS, POLICE, STRIKE

posted by MrK @ 3:55 PM