By ARTHUR SIMUCHOBA
Heated industrial disputes, strikes and protest demonstrations by workers are as old as mining itself in Zambia. Even so the industrial unrest that shook the copper mining town of Chingola a week before Labour Day commemorations was unpararelled.

The aggrieved workers were not Zambian but Indian – 360 strong.
They downed tools to press for improved pay, living and other conditions of service. Despite persuasion, threats and the involvement of Zambia police, the Indians would not budge.

For, four days running they would not resume work insisting on improvements in their pay and living conditions.

By the second day, 24 ringleaders had been identified.
They were driven out of town under police escort and put on a plane back to Mumbai. Their employer would not accede to any of their demands, insisting that they had signed a contract whose provisions had not been violated.

But even with such tough talking, the strike largely held on. Many of the workers still stayed away and expressed a desire to return to India than work under the disputed conditions. They maintained that they had been cheated.

Their employer, Onshore Construction Company, warned that more would be ordered out of Zambia if they continued to refuse to work but to no avail.

The strike could not have come at a worse time for a government that is increasingly at odds with the labour movement over proposed amendments to the Industrial and Labour Act. More damaging still, the wider public was only now learning of the presence of such a large group of Indian artisans on the mines, a very sensitive matter as unemployment among local artisans is high and in Zambian eyes at least, the mines have to absorb them.

Reported to total around 600 in all, the Indians had been sneaked into the country with the authorities obviously anxious not to arouse local unions’ concerns about unemployment. It is high and not even the improving economy has made a significant dent into it.

Against such a background, the inevitable questions are about the wisdom of employing foreigners while locals are roaming the streets.

Onshore Construction Company who were awarded the contract by the mining company, Canola Copper Mines of Chingola, to construct a new smelter apparently moved in with their own labour and little was publicly known about that until last week’s upheaval.

But the cat was finally out of the bag and questions and complaints are coming in thick and fast. There is a sense of shock and betrayal that “such a large group with skills that are readily available locally could be granted work permits”. The Indian group comprised among others plumbers, fitters, welders and riggers-all skills that are available locally.

Many have openly expressed disappointment with the decision to import such cheap labour and have cited it as proof that the authorities are increasingly unable to stand up to foreign investors even in the interest of their own people.

The decision has been criticised and the criticism hasn’t run its course.
“For many years, Zambians managed the copper smelter at Mufulira, Nkana and Luanshya mines. Zambians managed the cobalt smelter…in short we have more than enough expertise to deal with smelters,” said a respected independent Member of Parliament who previously worked as an engineer in the mines.

“It is disappointing that the government can allow 600 workers at Onshore when there are many Zambians out of employment,” he observed.

Government has so far been silent.
But the silence has not been of great assistance.
The Indian workers were adamant that they were the victims of a fraud.
They were not being paid what was agreed upon nor were their living conditions up to world standards although it does seem probable that one explanation for the walkout was simply the realisation that local workers would not accept their kind of conditions. By midweek, a total of 50 had been flown back to India and 10 more were due to leave.
There is now heightened public interest in the whole matter and for both government and the construction company, it is at best a public relations disaster.

For, the public is bound to be critical on account largely of latent dissatisfaction with the labour practices of many of the new players in the employment market. It is a concern that has been re-kindled after a period when it had subsided.

The town’s MPs have paid the company a visit and it is now offering jobs to locals.
The 60 vacancies arising from the departures are now on offer to local artisans. But questions about how the Indians obtained their work permits, persist and there are no clear answers.

This, at a time when both the Federation of Free Trade Unions(FFTUZ) and the Zambia Congress of Trade Unions(ZCTU) have shown resolve to fight amendments to the industrial and labour law aimed at making it essentially more investor -friendly. Foreign investors find existing labour laws, drawn up when the country was socialist leaning, “too rigid.” (Sila Press Agency)