Teachers across Zimbabwe on Monday began an indefinite industrial action to press for better salaries and better working conditions, a union spokesperson said.
Raymond Majongwe, secretary general of the radical Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ), threatened to bring schooling to a halt if his members’ wage demands are not met by the cash-strapped government.
“Indeed, the strike started today [Monday] and it will soon gather momentum countrywide and there will be a complete breakdown … We are demanding a salary increase, housing and transport allowances,” Majongwe said.
He said the teachers are staging sit-ins in staff rooms.
A teacher at Dudzai Primary school in Chitungwiza, the country’s biggest township near the capital Harare, said that all classes had been halted by the action.
“Teachers are just lazing in their staff rooms. None are teaching at all from Monday,” the teacher said on condition of anonymity.
Reports from Bulawayo, the country’s second-biggest city, indicated that both primary and secondary teachers downed their tools on Monday.
“All over Bulawayo teachers are determined not to teach until their demands are met … It’s a full-throttle industrial action as there has not been any contact with pupils,” high school teacher Brightmore Mbanjwa said by telephone.
“I am happy with the response for the sit-in … The teachers are in no mood for negotiation but simply want what is due to them,” said Mbanjwa, who represents the PTUZ in Bulawayo.
Mbanjwa said similar reports of sit-ins were received by their union.
“We are actually happy with the national response to the sit-in. Anybody who underestimates the situation is in for a rude awakening,” he said.
The teachers are demanding a salary hike of Z$540Â 000 (US$2Â 160) up from Z$84Â 000.
They are also demanding housing allowances of Z$150Â 000 from Z$42Â 000 and Z$100Â 000 transport allowance, up from Z$56Â 000.
The biggest lobby group, the Zimbabwe Teachers’ Association (ZTA), earlier said it wants better salaries and working condition that are in “tandem with inflation rates and the poverty datum line” but has not joined the sit-down.
“Consultations with government are going on … we know teachers are frustrated,” ZTA’s chief executive officer Peter Mabande said.
Zimbabwe is in the throes of a severe recession characterised by four-digit inflation, massive unemployment and chronic shortages of basic foodstuffs. — AFP