By Takura Zhangazha*
There are a number of strikes or ‘job actions’ that are
being undertaken in Zimbabwe. The most
significant of these has been an over a month long junior doctors strike at a majority
of our state owned referral hospitals. This
has also played out very badly in the public discourse with government issuing
veiled threats against the striking medical doctors. While also taking them to the labour court which
has since reserved its judgement.
Teachers unions, civil service associations and nurses associations
are also in one way or the other undertaking varying forms of strike
action. In some statements the worker’s representatives
have issued statements advising their employer (government) of their ‘incapacitation’. By this they mean they are unable to regularly
attend to their work stations for lack of either access to transport and other amenities
that have been negatively affected by the high costs of goods and services in
the country.
The statements relate directly to the individual
union/association member’s immediate material needs. And its entirely understandable. The main demand is that salaries be annotated
either in the United States dollar (USD) or its free market (also the parallel
market) equivalent. This demand is
shared across the board by all unions and associations.
Other demands include improved working conditions for both
the employees and in part also members of the public that require their
services. But there is no doubt that the
immediacy of their own personal remuneration is paramount. Be it the medical doctors, civil service
associations and teachers unions.
And salaries have basically come to be designed as highly personal
commodities in our neo-liberal economic framework. Both as designed by the Economic Structural Adjustment
Programme (ESAP) or as is now being re-emphasised by the austerity measures
under Mnangagwa’s government.
So the issue of remuneration is highly personal. Even in the unions and associations that are
representing the workers, this contradiction can be both glaring as it is
inspiring for current strike actions.
The contradiction therefore becomes the ability of the
unions/ associations to combine the motivated member to understand the bigger
economic picture beyond their actual salaries.
And not on behalf of the employer.
But on behalf of their own collective.
This is evidently much harder to undertake because it is
either not populist enough or it appears rather complicated to the member of
the association or union. The populism
required appears to be in two parts.
Either having a charismatic figure or a seemingly catastrophic event
affecting the association or union in order to whip up immediate emotions and
actions. Even if they eventually become
ephemeral.
Moreover it is also important to take into account the actual
after effects of strike actions and the perception of the same with the general
public. Particularly with regards how
the actions may consolidate a perception and culture of individualism within
the public to the extent that they lose sight of the importance of public
services. And seek instead an unsustainable solution in private services either
in education, health or transport. And
may in turn not value specific professions for their public service importance
and therefore inviolability of their work and work ethic.
In these trying
economic times, it is predictable that a neo-liberal economic framework is
destined to produce regular actions of resistance from workers. Even if they had not even been conscientised and
are acting on angry responses to being treated unfairly.
It would be therefore be fair to argue that unions and civil
services associations are between a rock and a hard place. They have to
carefully navigate the immediate and highly individual demands of higher remuneration
from their members without losing the collective value or ethos of the
union. Or without making theirs a single
issue and inevitably cyclical agenda.
To put it more straightforwardly, the unions and their leadership
now need to go a gear up and provide alternative holistic frameworks to the way
in which their professions/associations function nationally. And not just in the immediate but with
perspectives that relate to posterity.
For example where it concerns the health services sector, is the commercialization
template that is being touted by government the panacea? Or do we clearly need
a system similar to a publicly funded and supported national health service
that makes public hospitals not only viable but give everyone a chance of
professional treatment?
Or if we are in the teaching profession, what are the key
elements around public education that would make affordable education a reality
for many poor children? And how would value, even beyond the material, be retained
by the teaching profession. After all,
those that are causing problems in the education sector both for teachers and
affiliated workers, all must have gone through a better education system than
at present.
Or if we are in any other profession, raising key questions about how we do not anticipate any provision of mass urban public transport (ZUPCOs) should not be designed as a political stop gap measure but a public good and service.
These are questions and issues that do not preclude the
right of workers to strike or to increasingly choose either the private sector or
the Diaspora. Instead they bring to the
fore the importance of teachers unions, civil service associations expanding
the public and people centered values of their sectors to ordinary Zimbabweans. Even if it appears mundane and
difficult.
It also helps even in the internal processes of unions and
associations where members engage with not only the important issues of
salaries/remuneration but also key ideological questions of the country and the
necessary frameworks to build a better society for all. This would help tamper
populist approaches and also encourage members to read between the ideological
and elitist lines of their current predicament.
*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity
(takura-zhangazha.blogspot.com)
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