The Post reports that a strike by workers at the massive Mopani Copper Mines (MCM) in protest at the failure of wage negotiations to significantly improve salaries has disrupted a meeting between plant management and former Namibian President Sam Nujoma. Having recently retired, the former leader of the SWAPO liberation movement is studying for a degree and the trip to the mines, heavily reported by Zambian and international media, is part of his course. The Post reports, "The
Workers at both of Mopani's biggest plants, in Kitwe and Mufulira have downed tools to demand a 40% pay increment. MCM employs just below 9,000 permanent workers alongside roughly the same number via sub-contracted firms. Leaders of the two mining unions claim that a 40% hike would reflect the rising cost of living and the mega-profits being made by Mopani as a result of the spike in world copper prices. Management have offered just 16%. Last year workers received a pay rise of 29.5%. Bitterness is also driven by a 25% salary increase recently awarded to senior staff and payments to Peruvian contract drillers at fifteen times the level paid to Zambian workers. As noted in yesterdays blog, Mopani's operating profit for 2005-2006 leapt to $28 million.
As the 'For Whom the Windfalls?' report reveals, although Mopani is one of the better-paying of the Zambian copper mines, it's lowest paid workers currently earn below what the JCTR 'basic needs basket' considers a minimal baseline for survival, in terms of the needs of a worker and their family for food, clothing and basic social services. In an interview with the researchers for the report, MCM Chief Executive Tim Hendeson claimed last year that, ""We've never lost a day to a strike. We haven't been stoned like the Indians. Our neighbours have had far rougher patches than we have." Soon after that interview the company faced a strike by contract workers at the site. Permanent staff have now followed suit.
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