Contested labour and political leadership: three mineworkers’ unions after the opposition victory in Zambia

ABSTRACT

Scholars of Zambian labour thought the once-powerful movement in terminal decline, but followed up neither the effects of the multi-union environment nor the opposition victory of a leftist political party in 2011. The author’s case study of three mineworkers’ unions (Mineworkers’ Union of Zambia, National Union of Miners and Allied Workers and United Mineworkers Union of Zambia) shows how the Patriotic Front party reawakened labour militancy only to suppress it within five months. The union competition increased welfare and financial accountability, but even insurgent unions surrendered to the dominant ideology of ‘industrial peace’, yielding the strike weapon to corporate hegemony. The article concludes that the unions have little bargaining power, but that the constant grassroots contestation of labour and political leaders renders Zambian labour highly vibrant.

RÉSUMÉ

Les spécialistes du mouvement syndical zambien, autrefois si puissant, le considéraient comme moribond, mais ne commentèrent ni les effets de l’environnement plurisyndical ni la victoire d’un parti d’opposition de gauche en 2011. La présente analyse de trois syndicats du secteur minier (Mineworkers’ Union of Zambia, National Union of Miners and Allied Workers et United Mineworkers Union of Zambia) montre comment le Patriotic Front raviva d’abord le militantisme syndical pour ensuite le refouler en l’espace de cinq mois. La compétition entre les syndicats améliora la protection sociale et la transparence financière, tandis que les syndicats d’opposition se soumirent à l’idéologie dominante de la « paix industrielle », abdiquant ainsi face à l’hégémonie des grandes compagnies. L’article conclut que les syndicats n’ont que peu de pouvoir de négociation, mais la contestation ininterrompue de leaders politiques et syndicaux à la base prouve que le syndicalisme zambien est bel et bien vivant.

KEYWORDS:

• Mining
• mineworkers
• labour unions
• political opposition
• Zambia
• Patriotic Front

MOTS-CLÉS:

• Mineurs
• exploitations minières
• syndicats
• opposition politique
• Zambie
• Patriotic Front

Acknowledgements

This article is based on fieldwork in Zambia and I am grateful to mineworkers and union representatives from MUZ, NUMAW, and UMUZ for sharing their knowledge and experience. I thank my supervisor Professor Elísio Macamo (Basel), and colleagues from the Society, Work and Development Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand for the inspiring community of debate.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Note on contributor

Esther Uzar is a visiting scholar at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. For her PhD at the University of Basel, she conducted research on trade unions and political processes in the mining towns of the Zambian Copperbelt.

Notes

1 Interview 1, April 11, 2013 (see list of interviews below references).

2 Chisata to a newspaper reporter in 1962, quoted in Gupta (1974, 295).

3 The government tried to bar Federation of Free Trade Unions of Zambia (FFTUZ) leaders Lyson Mando and Joyce Nonde in 2007, but they appealed against the case (Interview 3, January 12, 2012).

4 MUZ and NUMAW officials believed that the Labour Minister had ordered the company Chambishi Metals to terminate the contract of the MUZ president and, without employment, he lost his right to hold a union office (see also The Post, November 16, 2010; Zambian Watchdog, December 30, 2010).

5 Edgar Lungu was elected in January 2015 after the 78-year-old Michael Sata had passed away.

6 Lusaka Voice, February 23, 2015; see also Chishimba 2015 and Sikamo 2014b.

7 Around 16,000 after retrenchment in 2015.

8 The wages include basic pay and housing allowance, as Yewa Kumwenda, MUZ research assistant director, explained to me on February 2, 2017.

9 See Leigh Day 2016 and Gehriger 2016.

10 12.6% in 2010; 17.7% in 2011; 19.7% in 2012; 12.3% in 2013; and 11.8% in 2014 (Manley 2013; Zambia Revenue Authority, Annual Reports 2010, 2013, 2014. Accessed November 18, 2015, from https://www.zra.org.zm).