Making sense of the chaos at Chambishi

The BBC , the Daily Mail and The Post all report on the story noted last night that management at Chambishi Copper Smelter (CSS) have issued 500 worker with summary dismissal letters following their two-day riotous behaviour in protest against poor conditions of service. This appears to be a profoundly unethical and likely illegal form of collective punishment of all unionised workers. The process described below treats each worker as guilty until proven innocent, in contravention of all principles of natural law, let alone Zambian law.

If anyone needed convincing that, as the 'For Whom the Windfalls?' report argued, reforming taxation of the mines was only the first step to solving the crisis on the Copperbelt, the strike, riots, sackings and arrests at Chambishi should serve as a powerful corrective. The sacrifice of reforms to establish a rational labour law to the concept that 'labour market flexibility encourages investment', the failure to enforce those legal rights that do exist, and the impunity with which mine investors offend against the law with the backing of the Zambian state lies at the heart of the wider tensions on the Copperbelt, and indeed in the country.

To understand what is going on, and why the situation is so chaotic, one needs to understand something about both Zambian labour laws and the history of the various trade unions in the mining sector in Zambia.

As the 'For Whom the Windfalls?' report explains, organising a union, winning recognition from employers which lead to collective bargaining with management, and withdrawing labour in strike, all basic elements of labour rights, are exceptionally complex in Zambia and have been intentionally made more difficult by the management at Chambishi. Partly as a result, workers have never simply been represented by union leaders, they also act autonomously. As Miles Larmer argued in his book, Mineworkers in Zambia, historically, "the MUZ was simultaneously the Katilungu House officials with their direct links to State House and ZCCM senior management; the branch officials who contested their dominance at Supreme Council and Biennial Conferences; the shop stewards challenging workplace controls on behalf of members; and the members themselves, commonly dissatisfied with the limited achievements of all these leaders and prepared to challenge them in the contested space of the public meeting." (p194) Little seems to have changed.

All the labour action at Chambishi and elsewhere has actually been wildcat strikes organised autonomously by the workers. Union representatives are then frequently found condemning the workers in the press, and saying to the workers officially 'trust us, negotiation is the way, get back to work'. This is perhaps not what they say in the background even when it is what they need to be seen to be said in the papers. Rather walkouts/riots may be organised with some communication with branch chairmen to assess when it would be useful to any ongoing negotiations to have a strike or a riot.

Finally, workers, acting autonomously, and sometimes being condemned by MUZ/NUMAW leadership still understand themselves as acting as a union, as they are either organising through the local branch, or just see all collective action as union action and thus don't see 'MUZ' or 'NUMAW' as referring to the heirarchy, but to themselves. With a rational labour law including the right to strike and companies willing to negotiate in good faith, this chaotic situation might not occur.

In a typical display of high-handedness which has hardened divisions between workers and the mine, CCS company secretary, Sun Chuanqi said the workers had been given a grace period of three days within which to exculpate themselves and show cause why disciplinary actionshould not be taken against them. Mr Chuanqi warned that all workers identified as ring leaders would be dismissed from employment to discourage others from behaving in a similar manner. By press time yesterday more than 19 alleged ring leaders had been identified while more than 66 workers collected their summary dismissal letters. “We’re appealing to the workers to respond quickly to the summary dismissal letters so that those that did not take part in the riotous behaviour could be reinstated because work has been grossly affected and we need local manpower,” he said. The approach taken here smacks of illegitimate collective punishment and the use of a presumption of guilt, not innocence and surely presents potential claims of unfair dismissal from many workers. It also seems likely only to stoke local tensions. Nonetheless, the Zambian state has immediately taken the side of the company. The Lusaka Times reports the comments
of Copperbelt Permanent Secretary, Jennifer Musonda said the workers at Chambeshi Smelter should blame themselves for the action taken by management to dismiss them. Mrs. Musonda said the government will not protect unruly behaviour by workers especially where they over look dialogue and grievance procedures. What Musonda in effect is saying is that the state will back the mining companies in any dispute with workers. Surely the role of a 'Government of Laws', the current administrations preferred description of itself, is to allow for due process in any disciplinary process, in which evidence in each individual case would be key, rather than the sacking of all unionised workers, selected for collective punishment precisely because they are unionised.

The Daily Mail report that police have apprehended seven CCS workers in relation to the riot that took place on Tuesday at the copper smelter company. Copperbelt Police commanding officer, Antonneil Mutentwa, revealed that six officials of NUMAW and one member were apprehended by police in connection with the riot.

NUMAW national secretary Albert Mando condemned the action by the workers to riot and damage company property. “We are not in support of what the workers did. We are also disappointed with what happened on Tuesday because the negotiations have not yet collapsed, so why strike or riot?” Mr Mando said.

The Post list those arrested as Aswell Sibale Malume who is NUMAW Chambishi branch chairperson, his vice Christopher Yumba, Steven Kabwe (secretary) and his vice Clifford Nkandu. Others are Kasweya Dombwani (treasurer) and his vice Chanda Mwaango. Mando said the detention of union leaders was unfair because they were the ones who tried to calm down the situation at the company. He said there was need for management and the union leaders to sit down and sort out the matter once and for all. Mando said calm had returned at the company but workers had by yesterday morning not reported for work.

In the meantime, The Post also reports that workers at Collum Coal Mine have also continued their strike.