A civil organistation in Kitwe has commended the Mine Workers Union of Zambia (MUZ) for its transparency it exhibits each time the mining body holds elections.
Democratic Governance and Human Rights Advocates (DEGHA) national coordinator Gerald Mutelo said unions in the country should emulate the way MUZ conducts its elections in a peaceful, air and transparent way.
ZANIS reports Mr Mutelo saying this in a statement made available in Kitwe today .
“ We are particularly happy to see the high levels of democracy that MUZ practices every elections period. We urged MUZ president and his team to continue promoting democracy in their union, “Mr Mutelo says in the statement..
He also appealed to the union leadership to continue representing their members effectively without fear or favour because most miners have confidence in the union.
Mr. Mutelo however says there is need for unity among the trade unions in the country If they are to represent workers effectively.
Meanwhile Mr. Mutelo has appealed to President Sata to consider creating another province in North Western province in order to create more developmental programs.
He said the named province is one of the biggest provinces in the country and if this is done it will contribute positively to national development.
President Sata’s government recently partitioned Northern Province into two provinces into Muchinga Province which takes part of the original province and Eastern Province.
ZANIS
Atually, it’ s the best Union which manifests true democracy and a genuine stance towards representing the workers but I have got a very serious concern which i feel the Union should work tirelessly to address in KCM. There is no transparency and a lot of biaseness in the way KCM handles it’ s general payroll employees because most of these poor employees have remained in the severe suffering group. MUZ through it’ s current collective agreements with KCM should also demand for streamlining of salaries for employees in the general payroll system. The current mode is very confusing where for instance employees in the KCM4 category have varying salary scales. This biaseness should come to an end and it should be done in the same way the management have done it at senior staff level.
MUZ hailed, keep up with good democratic principles and be a good example to the rest. It’ s my hope that President Munyenyembe will deliver.