ZIMBABWE Congress of Trade Unions vice-president Valentine Chikosi is concerned that the formation of splinter labour organisations can weaken the fight for workers’ rights.
Speaking recently on the sidelines of Workers‘ Day celebrations in Gweru, Chikosi said disunity among workers was detrimental to the cause of improving their welfare and working conditions.
He said the workers had the responsibility to guard against the formation of splinter trade unions.
“We should at all costs fight against dividing trade unionism because this weakens us as workers. When workers are divided it is easy for the employer to manipulate and exploit them,” he said.
Chikosi said the government was happy to see workers divided because a united workforce is capable of resisting bad governance and corruption.
“We are a very rich country with vast mineral resources, yet we have one of the poorest workforce in Africa. If we were united as workers we could effectively fight for the national cake to be shared equitably.
“Unfortunately, we now have workers who go to bed with politicians (while) bootlicking them [and] such selfish behaviour has not benefited the generality of workers,” he said.
Chikosi said the Tripartite Negotiation Forum, as a platform for dialogue among government, business and labour, should have a “true intention to come up with policies that advance the rights of workers”.
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