Zimbabwe’s main trade union body has given President Robert Mugabe an ultimatum to improve the economic fortunes of workers or face unspecified action, a union leader said on Sunday.
Lovemore Matombo, Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) president, said that a meeting of the union’s general council on Saturday gave Harare till February 23 to come up with strategies to reverse Zimbabwe’s rapid economic decline.
”They have to put all their strategies in place by the 23rd of next month,” he said. Workers would embark on different forms of protest if their demands are not met, he added.
”So dissatisfied with their fast-diminishing buying power are many of the ZCTU’s 350 000 members that they feel it would be better to stay at home than to go to work,” Matomobo said.
Zimbabwean professionals have been hard-hit by the country’ssoaring inflation rate currently running at over 1 280 percent and by the rapidly devaluing currency.
Matombo said the ZCTU general council also resolved to urge the government to accept wage demands by junior doctors, who have been on strike since December 21 to press for a near 100-fold pay increase.
The deadlock between the government and the doctors was hurting the majority of Zimbabweans who depend on public hospitals, the union leader said. – Sapa-DPA