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A. LE FLOCH
Masvingo — Workers at sugar cane plantations in the Lowveld last week downed tools demanding payment of their salaries in foreign currency.
The workers say they also want their employers to give them regular maize-meal allocations in order to save their families from starvation.
Zimbabwe is in the throes of serious food shortages, with aid agencies putting the number of people needing food assistance at more than five million, effective this month.
The strike has since spread to the two giant sugar milling companies, Triangle and Hippo Valley and could paralyse the production of sugar already hampered by the multi-faceted economic crisis in the country.
Employers across the economy are under increased pressure to pay workers in foreign currency as the local unit continues to lose value at an alarming rate.
The plantation workers said salaries paid in Zimbabwean dollars had become useless as everything in Chiredzi — their nearest town — was being sold in foreign currency.
"We engaged in this strike to press for our salaries to be paid in foreign currency since the economy has been dollarised," said one of the workers who requested to remain anonymous.
"The salaries we are getting in local currency no longer buy anything since nearly all the shops are selling their products in forex,"
Zimbabwe Sugar Milling Workers' Union (Zismiwu), which represents workers in the plantations, confirmed the job action.
Admore Hwarare, the secretary-general, said his union was locked in negotiations with employers over the issue.
"Yes, there is a strike going on and the workers are refusing to go back to work until they are given maize-meal and forex," he said. "While we are negotiating for salaries, the union is busy trying to source maize-meal for workers."
The strike is set to further slash sugar cane production, which fell over 50% since the start of the chaotic land invasions in 2000.
Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), secretary-general, Wellington Chibebe said the strike by the workers was justified under the economic conditions.
"Their action is justified," he said, "everything in the country is being sold in foreign currency so they must be paid in forex so that they can afford to buy food stuffs."
Efforts to get a comment from Triangle and Hippo Valley were fruitless.