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Unions vow to defy Mugabe ban
27/02/2007 20:20 - (SA)
Harare - Zimbabwe's main labour body vowed on Tuesday to go ahead with a national job boycott planned for April despite a threatened crackdown by President Robert Mugabe's government.
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) said it had decided last weekend to mobilise workers to stay away from work on April 3 and 4 to protest the government's "failure to address the economic meltdown" in the southern African nation.
State security minister Didymus Mutasa has said the unions could expect harsh government action if they went ahead with protests. ZCTU leaders were arrested and they claim they were assaulted in police custody after an abortive street protest last September.
Analysts say the ZCTU's calls for strikes over labour and social issues in recent years have largely failed due to government intimidation and workers' fears of losing their jobs in a country that has an 80% unemployment rate.
In a statement ZCTU secretary-general Wellington Chibebe said the unions would press on with the planned strike.
Rising cost of living
"Mobilisation of workers nationwide will go on unless government addresses workers' concerns," said Chibebe.
"The Zimbabwean workers will no longer be browbeaten and will continue to demand what is rightfully theirs."
Political analysts have warned that the rising cost of living, marked by the world's highest inflation rate at almost 1 600%, could trigger street protests against Mugabe's government.
Last week police imposed a three-month ban on protests and rallies across much of Harare after officers clashed with opposition supporters. The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) on Tuesday said it had filed papers challenging the ban in court.
The government increased wages for increasingly restive civil servants last week, the second time it had done so in as many months.
The move came after teachers in public schools went on strike, joining some doctors and nurses who began a job boycott in December.
- Reuters
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