More than 600 workers at Bata shoe manufacturing company in Gweru have withdrawn their membership from the Zimbabwe Leather Shoe and Allied Workers’ Union (ZLSAWU) to form the Zimbabwe Footwear Tanning and Allied Workers’ Union (ZFTAWU), NewsDay has learnt.
The new union, formed a fortnight ago, is aligned to the George Nkiwane-led faction of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), while ZLSAWU is among unions which still pay allegiance to the Lovemore Matombo-led ZCTU faction.
ZFTAWU spokesperson and Nkiwane-led ZCTU Central Region chairperson Martin Tazvivinga confirmed in an interview with NewsDay on Wednesday that the bulk of Bata workers had defected to the new union citing disgruntlement over mismanagement of funds by the ZLSAWU leadership.
“697 Bata employees have resigned their membership with ZLSAWU to join ZFTAWU. This is literally almost the whole of Bata and we are not going back as we intend to expand to other leather-related industries countrywide in a membership recruitment drive,” said Tazvivinga.
Tazvivinga said ZFTAWU tendered its application for registration on May 21 and that the new union would put new structures in place soon.
He said the major reason to form a splinter union had nothing to do with the ZCTU factions but mismanagement in the ZLSAWU leadership.
“The leadership in ZLSAWU has not been transparent for a long time and has been nocturnally spending membership money and failing to produce audited account books,” he said.
Meanwhile, ZLSAWU has filed an application with the High Court to stop ZFTAWU from forming the splinter union arguing the move was not procedural and contravened sections of the ZCTU constitution.
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Tazvivinga said on Tuesday together with the others behind ZFTAWU they were served with summons barring them from forming the splinter union.
“We have been served with summons from the High Court to bar us forming a new union, but the truth is our actions are in order and to the book and we will not stop,” he said.
