Maravi

Let’s improve the lives of workers

Let’s improve the lives of workers
By THe Post
Sun 01 May 2011, 04:00 CAT

TODAY, this Sunday May 1, is International Labour Day. And for us in Zambia, this year’s workers’ day has added importance because it comes at a time when we have to make very important political choices.

Labour Day is an opportune time to review the conditions of our workers and all our working people in order to prepare for better working conditions. And in this election year, we would add that Labour Day is an opportune time to review our past in order to prepare for better political choices for the future.

Fackson Shamenda, former president of the Zambia Congress of Trade Unions and a highly internationally respected trade unionist, has summarised very well the challenges and problems facing our workers and their trade unions or the labour movement in general.

For the first time since independence, we have a political party in government that is more on the side of capital than workers; a government that defends capital at the expense of labour.

We now have in government a political party that has decimated the labour movement in our country.

Today trade unions are just there in name and not in works.

Our key trade union leaders have been co-opted, in one way or another, to be at the service of those in power, the defenders of capital and transnational corporations.

For some of our trade union leaders today, it is not difficult to discern who they represent between capital and government on the one hand and the workers on the other.

They have become so close to the government that it is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish between them and cadres of the ruling party.

Trade union leaders are in the forefront of defending the government and the ruling party than defending the interests of the workers.

It is not surprising that the ruling party today is usually in the forefront campaigning for trade union leaders it wants to be in charge of the labour movement.

It is also not surprising that leading trade unionists are today being appointed to serve as top directors of parastatal enterprises or quasi-governmental organisations, thus weakening the leadership of our trade unions and the labour movement in general.

This has left workers in a very difficult situation as far as improving their conditions is concerned.

Today, the Church is speaking more for workers than the leaders of trade unions.

And workers today are relying more and more on the Church and the opposition political leaders to speak for them because trade union leaders have become irrelevant in the scheme of things.

Politics has become the only meaningful way for workers to participate in determining the policies that affect their lives.

“Workers are the greatest resource of every country!”

How often do we hear that statement, especially during Labour Day? And how true is it for us here in Zambia!

Our workers are indeed our greatest resource, the producers of all wealth, our richest treasure, our best hope for the future.

Yet today in Zambia, this worker counts for nothing; we every day hear of his deterioration and exploitation.

We every day hear of his great suffering, a suffering which by and large seems to go unnoticed by those in power and is often inadequately responded to by those in government.

It is criminal to remain silent in the face of these sufferings that our workers are subjected to.

We are glad that the Church, as always, is responding favourably to the challenges and problems facing our workers.

Probably the word of God challenges them: “If you refuse to hear the cry of the poor, your own cry for help will not be heard” (Proverbs 21:13).

And as such they speak out and call upon all our people of goodwill to deal more forthrightly with this increasing exploitation and suffering in our midst. We all know our workers’ suffering.

Listening to the cries of the workers every day, and especially on Labour Day, then, what are we asking for?

We call upon the government to deal with the challenges and problems facing our workers.

Our workers are losing faith in the government’s concern for them and their problems and sufferings.

Aside from political rhetoric here and there, very little concrete expression of real concern for the workers is heard or seen from government officials.

Appeals for workers to be patient and modest in their demands can only be perceived as cynical at best, abusive at worst, when they come from officials who receive such disproportionate high salaries, allowances, gratuities and other benefits.

For instance, how can Rupiah Banda, as President of this country, morally ask the workers to be patient or modest in their demands when he himself just changed the law to give himself gratuity that he did not qualify for?

There seems to be very little effective action taking place in responding to the sufferings, challenges and problems of the workers.

The workers are more and more turning to opposition politicians for support because they know that their poor conditions, their impoverishment is caused by the unjust political, economic and social structures.

All workers have the right to receive a just wage.

And all forms of business that place profit before persons and are based on exploitation of one by another deserve condemnation.

If there is austerity required in the nation, it needs to be shared equally among all, including the top political leadership of the country.

It is an injustice for politicians to pay themselves all sorts of gratuities and other benefits while the conditions of workers have remained stagnant for many years and those who have retired are going without their benefits.

The rights of workers, like all rights, are based on the nature of the human person and his transcendent dignity.

Among these rights are: a just wage; a working environment not harmful to the workers’ physical health or their moral integrity; social security, and the right to meaningful trade union representation.

We say meaningful trade union representation because some of our trade unions are just trade unions in name.

What workers need are trade unions that enable them to improve their conditions.

And such trade unions should be valued and promoted by everybody in the nation.

Remuneration for work should guarantee workers a dignified livelihood for themselves and their families.

To achieve this, there may be a need for the government to meaningfully and appropriately regulate industries and commerce to protect workers’ rights and to curb exploitation.

These are the challenges that we collectively need to address.

There is need to help workers reorganise and re-energise their trade unions so that they can have meaningful representation to the owners and managers of capital and indeed to the government itself.

Labels: LABOUR DAY

posted by MrK @ 1:00 AM