Strike stalemate Govt cant pay, workers wont work

Most ministries and departments were this week staffed by a handful of workers and senior management officials as many unionised workers stayed away. The unions said there had been a 75 per cent stay-away, while observers put the proportion at 30 per cent. The workers, from sectors such as education, urban transport, hospitals and health centres, courts and the state offices, say only a sufficient increase could end the strike. The strike has shut down most public schools and reports suggested some medical staff had joined the strike in other parts of the country, while others were on a go-slow.

Public Service Minister Eliphas Mukonoweshuro of the MDC said workers had hastily downed tools without exhausting all channels of communication at the negotiating table. It is not unwillingness on the part of the government, the minister said. It is simply the lack of fiscal capacity on our part. Even if they ask for US$300 for the least paid, that would bring the salary bill to US$1.3 billion dollars, which is more than the annual budget of the government. The 180,000-strong civil service wants salaries raised from US$120 a month to US$630 a month. But the bankrupt power-sharing government of President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has offered to increase their wages to US$122 in February, then US$134 in April.

This strike wave, especially of government workers, has surprised the MDC, which has been in office for a year. Two key ministries run by the party, finance and public service, are affected by the action. It seems the MDC has not satisfied the deep desire for change and socio-economic improvements, and it is also a reflection that the labour-backed MDC has failed to deliver on high expectations from workers and its lofty electoral promises. Everyone in government knows that what our workers are getting does not meet their daily basic expenses, Mukonoweshuro said. The ministry remains ready to discuss the new position they brought to the National Joint Negotiating Council. He added that civil servants had slashed their demands from US$602 to US$502, which he maintained was still way out of the reach of government.

Finance ministry personnel at the new government complex defied colleagues in other government departments by not joining the countrywide strike. A finance ministry official said that the ministry was operating normally because we understand the governments financial position and we know this government cant pay. Raymond Majongwe, the secretary-general of the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe, said the country would have the resources to pay workers if diamonds being mined in the Chiadzwa diamond fields were used to pay workers and not creamed off by a few individuals. This week, top PTUZ officials addressed a rally in Bulawayo and a second in Gweru.

Government may be forced to sack striking medical staff, whom the administration accuses of threatening public health, and those in essential and critical services, including state security workers. But Public Service Association President Cecilia Alexander said there was no going back on the strike action until government capitulated and granted workers their demands.