Chambishi Wildcat Strike Over?

Reuters reports that, following talks with management, the 500 striking workers building the Chambishi Smelter have returned to work. The strikers downed tools and blockaded the plant last week in support of demands for better wages and holiday and transport allowances. Information on the talks is very hazy, and it is unclear whether any deals on pay and conditions were reached. Management offered no comment, and the workers are operating outside of any formal union structure. Commodity Online newsletter suggests workers were demanding a 40% pay increase.
The strike highlights the peculiarities of employment practice at Chinese owned plants around Chambishi as well as failures of labour law and union representation on the Copperbelt. A number of these isssues are discussed in greater detail in the 'For Whom the Windfalls?' report.

• A strikingly low number of workers in Chambishi are on formal, permanent contracts.
  
• Most workers are employed on a temporary basis via labour brokering agencies, and work on much lower wages than those performing similar work in unionised workplaces. Protesters this week taregted the local labour office as well as the mine management.
  
• Organising and forcing management to recognise trade unions in workplaces is especially difficult given 1) management attitudes to unions, particularly in Chinese managed mines, and b) the legal framework in place.
  
• Actually striking on a legal, official basis is also almost impossible.
  

Admirably, Zambian miners have not allowed these issues to get in the way of collective action to press for improved pay and conditions - it simply means that most industrial action happens outside of formal union processes, even in unionised mines. Industrial actions at KCM and MCM last year both involved local branches and members of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) organising wildcat actions, and head office of the NUM, which was unable to formally endorse or organise the strike, doing some of the negotiating with management.

In the case of Chambishi mine a small number of workers are held on 'old' NUM contracts while all workers employed since NFC-A took over the plant are not. A breakaway union from the NUM, NUMAW, has been trying, in the face of management blockages, to organise the rest of the workforce. The situation was reflected in comments from Albert Mando, NUMAW general secretary, who told Reuters. "The strike has ended, but we are not sure if they have struck a deal."

Chambishi Smelter, which will cost more than $200 million to construct, is part of China's planned $900 million investment in the mining town of Chambishi, which the government has turned into a tax free economic zone to attract Chinese investment.