Trade unions operating in difficult conditions - Shamenda

Trade unions operating in difficult conditions - Shamenda
By Agness Changala
Tue 16 Feb. 2010, 04:00 CAT

FORMER Zambia Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) president Fackson Shamenda has observed that trade unions in the country are operating under difficult conditions to be effective.

In an interview yesterday, Shamenda said a lot of challenges resulting from the current political climate and the general economic trend were hampering progress.

“There are a lot of challenges given the political climate, job losses and to them trade unions the fight for job creation becomes cardinal,” he said.

Shamenda said even the economic problems that were experienced worldwide had a greater effect on the performance of the trade unions in the country. He called on the trade unions to be united because there was strength in unity.

He, however, said the future of the trade unions was bright looking at the economic activities which were currently coming up. Shamenda said the labour unions were meant to defend the weak in society and that they should be seen to do so by protecting the workers because they are the ones who created wealth for the nation.

He said those in the government could ignore what the representatives of the workers said at their own peril, urging them to listen to union leaders.

And Shamenda said the decision by the government to privatise the remaining parastatals like ZAMTEL was not right. He said this was an admission that the government had no management skills to run the few remaining parastatals.

“To me, this is an essential admission that the government has no management skills to run the few parastatals which we have in the country,” Shamenda said. “If one can fail to run the few parastatals which we have, we start wondering how they will be able to run the government,” Shamenda said.

He urged the government to acquire good management skills to be able to manage the affairs effectively.