Medical Buzz Volume One of 2010 February

8/14/2019 Medical Buzz Volume One of 2010 February

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The Medical BuzzVoice of the MedicalProfessional and Allied Workers Union

Volume 1 of 2010 . 1st floor Crossroads Building N0, 43 Julius Nyerere Ways

Harare Telefax (04) 704209 Email [email protected]

Support St Anne`s

nurses ...Say no to

Starvation wages

demand living wages

HullocomradesComplimentsofthenewyear2010,lhope

youallhadarestfulholidaythoughyouhadnoenough

resourcestoenjoyittoitsfullest,meincluded.Hopefully

weallopenedtheyear2010withthesamespiritwehad

lastyearthatisanuncompromisingurgetoendanunjust

systemthat breedsgreediness and shamelesness

amongstourbosseswhoprefertoconsumemoreontheir

ownwhilstwepineinunbridledpovertyforgettingthatits

uswhotoilthemosttoproducethewealththeyenjoysingly.

.Manyofourkidsaregoingtodropofffromschoolsaswe

cantaffordschoolfeesyetwehaveinformationtotheeffect

thatsomekidsofparentswhoworkatourplacesfacing

similarviabilitychallengesaswearetoldarebeingsend

toexpensiveschoolslocallyandevenabroadusingthe

wealthweproduce...Howlongshallthediscrepancyexist?

Anyway,thatsthewayitisbutitsnotmeanttolastforever

.Ourstruggleisnotanisolatedstruggleatallbutitspartof

aglobalstrugglebeingwagedbytheworkingpeoplein

rejectionofafailedneoliberalsystem(asystemthat

pushesprofitsextractedfromexploitationaheadofhuman

lives).Itsasystemthathascausedmanyworkerstolivein

abductpoverty.

However,MedicalBuzzappreciatesunanimoussupportitcontinuestogetfrommostmedicalinstitutionsithasso

farbeenabletocontact.

Ourmembership farexceedsour December target.

Reachingthatremarkabletargetwasnotawalkinthepark

asspecialcredithastogotoallcomradeswhoincessantly

sacrificedtheirtimetorecruitbyallmeansneccessary

.ComradePresidentandcolleguesatWestEndhospital

yourcontributionispricelessjobwelldonecomrades.(really

womencandoitamconvinced)Mudharatreasureryour

commitmentisunparalleled,lfinditeasytoworkwith

peoplewithsuchmegacommitmentlikeyours.

Munotipawoshingiso.ThelistisinfinitebutIfeelindebted

toEMFand Clinicallabemployeesmurimagamba

chaiwokeepitup.

Ourkeychallengenowistomakesurewecoverareas

outsideHararewherewehavenomembership.We

havesomemembersoutofHarareonfewinstitutions

like CIMAS,MARSand EMRAScourtesyto our

comradesworkinginthesameinstitutionshereinHarare

butweneedtoexpandbeyondthat.Hopefullymoneteray

problemswhichrestraineduslastyeararenotgoingto

recurasmanycentresstartremittingsubscriptions..The

curtainiscomingdownforaggressiverecruitmentdrive

aswenowfocusonmoreotherimportantissuesahead

ofussuchastheNECissuewhichisjustbythecorner,

the ZCTU issue and as wel l as servicing our

membership.

AboveallThankscomradesforbitbybitwehave

managedtobewherewearenowmoresowithazero

budget.

ItsaRedHotUnionregauonezvako,Joinit!!!ItsaRedHotUnionregauonezvako,Joinit!!!ItsaRedHotUnionregauonezvako,Joinit!!!ItsaRedHotUnionregauonezvako,Joinit!!!ItsaRedHotUnionregauonezvako,Joinit!!!

MSamboGeneralSecretary

iIts deliIts deliIts deliIts deliIts delivvvvvererererery time noy time noy time noy time noy time now ...w ...w ...w ...w ...

as manas manas manas manas many wy wy wy wy worororororkkkkkererererers join the unions join the unions join the unions join the unions join the union

Our own NEC for the

Medical sectorby March ...its a must ..


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The Rights of Workers Committees

WORKERS COMMITTEESARE A VERYIMPORTANTWORKERS COMMITTEESARE A VERYIMPORTANTWORKERS COMMITTEESARE A VERYIMPORTANTWORKERS COMMITTEESARE A VERYIMPORTANTWORKERS COMMITTEESARE A VERYIMPORTANT

ORGANOFWORKERSSTRUGGLESORGANOFWORKERSSTRUGGLESORGANOFWORKERSSTRUGGLESORGANOFWORKERSSTRUGGLESORGANOFWORKERSSTRUGGLESwhichwhichwhichwhichwhich emerged

in 1979-80 formed spontaneously by activists who were disillusionedby sell outs and cowardly trade union leaders of that time.

In 1979-1980 thousands of workers in over 300 companies went onwild cat strikes demanding better wages, against racist bosses andthe repeal of unjust and racist laws like the Master and ServantsOrdinance and the Industrial Conciliation Act.

These strikes forced the state to pass new laws like the MinimumWages Act and Employment Act resulting in big increases in minimumwages, the repeal of most of the racist and oppressive colonial labourlaws and legal recognition to workers committees.

Since then Workers Committees have played an important part inworkers struggles .In many cases where trade unions are weak orhave sold out , it is workers committees that have initiated and ledstrikes like the powerful strikes by Standard Charted bank workers ,Nutresco workers and by construction workers in 1999.In unions likeprinting and Dairiboard, workers committees mobilised workers toboot out corrupt and cowardly leaders and started to re-build theirunions.

But is has not been rosy. Bosses have infiltrated many workerscommittees, bribing their members or dubiously promoting members,so that they sell out workers or splinter unions. On the other handmilitant members of workers committees have been victimised,

transferred, demoted or dismissed as happened in many places.

To build strong workers committees three things are necessarythat is:

a) The committee must be democratic , always ensuring thatbefore agreeing to any decision with the bosses they have calleda general meeting to get workers approval .the Chairperson orany member of the committee should not meet bosses alone ;

b) The workers committee must mobilise workers to join andactively participate in the trade union to make it stronger, democraticand militant.

c) Workers committees must continuously improve theirknowledge of the law and history of the working class, the politicaleconomy of capitalism and how to fight it. Workers must havecopies of and study the Labour Act and their code of conduct.

Lets look at some of the most important rights of Workers Committeesunder the Act.

Section 25A- The Right to be consulted before any majordecision by the employer

This provides powerful rights to workers. Under section 25A (5) and(6) the employer must consult the Workers Council before implementingany of the following things:

a) Restructuring of the work place to introduce new technology or workmethods .

b)Job grading and training schemes or development of new products.c) Closure of factory or any intention to sell or merge the company..

d) Implimentation of any code of conduct ,whether registered or not.

e)The criterion for payment of bonuses or profit sharing.

f)Retrenchment of employees, whether voluntary or compulsory.

Before implementing the above, the employer must give the workerscommittee full written information, sufficient time for them to study them

and to hold meetings with workers to consult them so that they comewith any alternative proposals; to consider the alternative proposalsadvanced by workers and to try its best to reach agreement with theworkers; and if it agrees to give in writing its reasons for refusing.

If a boss proceeds to implement the above without consulting the workerscommittee, the following options are available for workers:

a) To go on immediate strike under section 104(4) stating thatthere is an immediate threat to the existence of the workers committee

b) Alternatively, workers can do a partial strike, refusing to carryout or implement the changes by the employer until it consults theWorkers Committee. Such refusal would not be disobedience toa lawful instruction , as the changes by the employer would beillegal;

c) To make an application to a Labour Officer to conciliate on thematter ; and if it is of a very urgent nature to immediately thenmake an application for an interdict or injunction to the LabourCourt, stopping the employer from applying those measures .

In the next issue we look at other rights of workersCommittees.

Workers know your rights

Volume 1 of 2010 page 2

Mpwuz mobilises full solidarity forMpwuz mobilises full solidarity forMpwuz mobilises full solidarity forMpwuz mobilises full solidarity forMpwuz mobilises full solidarity for

victimised St Annesvictimised St Annesvictimised St Annesvictimised St Annesvictimised St Annes

Nurses including full legal supportNurses including full legal supportNurses including full legal supportNurses including full legal supportNurses including full legal support


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The General Secretary outlined the history of the union and why it is vital

for the resuscitation of the union now considering a of myriad of problems

currently being faced by workers in their respective institutions .He stated

that employers are taking advantage of the absence of an NEC and a

strong united Trade Union to victimise workers .He reported that some

employers are unyieldingly attempting to refrain their employees from

joining the union realising the potential it has.

He further reported that the union has so far written a courtesy letter to

the Ministry of labour care of the Registrar of Trade Unions familiarising

the union and as well informing them that we have engaged the

Employers organisation to initiate the process of registering the NEC. He

told the house that arrangements are currently underway with the

Zimbabwe labour centre such that next year 2009 they will assist us by

training some of our members some basic knowledge on labour

regulations .

Here are key resolutions made by the meeting

a) The issue of the NEC is very important hence we cannot

afford to keep on delaying the process as people are already

waiting for it. The meeting resolved that we shall not go

beyond end of January 2010 before we sit down with

employers to start registration or else we seek the Ministers

intervention to speed up the process.

b) Its high time the union should start representing its members

in settling some disputes at company levels .

c) We should take a hard-line stance on those employers

deliberately sabotaging us by not deducting members

subscriptions otherwise our activities shall be crippled.

d) Recruitment remains our priority until February 2010 hence

we should maximise our recruitment drive so that we have

more members by the time we register NEC to avert any

possibilities of opposition from other interested NECs currently

purporting to represent our industry. In that respect it was

agreed to split our Union into six distinct sectors each with asteering committee that will be responsible for recruiting in

their sector .

Here are the sectors indentified and comrades seconded to

the committees

1) Hospitals and Clinics

Chair Chifamba(Avenues Clinic) Vice Chair Chiremba

(WESTEND) Secretary Marufu ( Suburban andVice Sec

Kuvenga (Suburban ) Committee member Chones Baines

Avenue

2) Laboratories

Chair Malvern Musarurwa ( Clinical labs ) to fill in the

committee later

3) Medical AID societies

Chair Ndiweni ( PSMAS) , Vice Chair Mtamuzeli (

CIMAS) , Secretary ( Manatse ( EMF)

4) Ambulances

Chair Munyaradzi Maregedze ( MARS) to fill in the

committee later

5) Imaging

Chair Pamela Ndangara ( PSMI Imaging) committee to

be filled in later

6) Pharmacies to be done later

Chitungwiza so far was considered a region therefore we shall

have one committee that will be responsible for recruiting in

Chitungwiza across all sectors.

Key resolutions made by the MPAWUZ General members meeting held on the 5 th December

2009 at Horizon INN ( Harare )

Volume 1 of 2010 page 3

St Annes Workers say No to Victimisation

Medical Buzz salutes St Annes hospital employees for their

buoyancy as they face interminable attacks from their bosses

who have been resisting to effect a salary increase for some

time .Bosses went too far by victimising nurses who had

exercised their right to strike and reject peanuts. Workers

should not be demoralised though because that is the only

language bosses can understand .Workplace based strikes

are not as effective as industry wide strikes hence there isneed for workers to unite under one union and one NEC so that

wage negotiations are done on an industrial level and action

is taken across the whole industry to avoid victimisation .We

urge St Annes hospital workers to come and join in MPAWUZ

so they be part of a pool of other fighting medical workers.Our

strength is in numbers so united we win .Mpawuz is ready to

assist all victimised workers regardless of your membership

status


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The Medical BuzzVoice of the MedicalProfessional and Allied Workers Union

Volume 1 of 2010

volume

TheCENTRALSTATISTICALOFFICECENTRALSTATISTICALOFFICECENTRALSTATISTICALOFFICECENTRALSTATISTICALOFFICECENTRALSTATISTICALOFFICE estimatesthataworkerneedsanetpayofUS$660amonthtol ive decently with his/her family. This is thebreadbasketinZimbabwenow.

BossesacrossmanysectorsarenotpayingthismuchandthesurveymadebyTheMedicalBuzzinthemedicalfieldreflectedthatmanyworkersareearningintheregionofUS$150-US$220.

Itisofextremeimportancethatworkersunderstandtheissueofwagesbecauseitgoestotheheartofwhybossesarerichandpowerfulandworkerspoorandoppressed.Somegreateconomistsstatedthattheaveragerateofwagesisequaltothesumofnecessitiessufficienttokeepuptheraceofworkmeninacertaincountryaccordingtothestandardoflife

habitualinthatcountry.ThatstandardoflifemaybeverydifferentfordifferentclassesofworkmenInotherwords,intheidealworld,wagesshouldattheminimumbeequaltothebreadbasket,orthecostofgoodsandservicesnecessarytokeepaworkerand

hisorherfamilyaliveatwhataworkerseesasadecentstandard,plusthecostoftrainingthatparticularskillofworker.Thisisalivingwage.

Workersnormallyproducewealthequaltothiswageandthecostofrawmaterialsandequipmentused,inonlyasmallportionoftheworkingperiod,sayhalfoftheworkingweek.Whatisproducedafterthatisextrawealth,orsurplusvalue.Howeverbossestakeallthisnewwealth,evenifithasbeenproducedbyworkerssweat.Overtimethisaccumulatesandmakesthemricherandricher,usingthatwealthtobuycontroloverthesocietyatlarge.Meanwhile,theworkerremainswhereshe/hewasbeforeatbestjustaddingafewitemsofpersonalpropertylikearadio,TV,bicyclebutremainworkerswhohavetoworkforbossestosurvive.Inmostcasesvanavanorambavachirarapasisembambaira.

Butinpractise,wageslikeothercommodities,aredeterminedthroughbargainingbetweenworkersand

bossesinthemarketandwillthereforedependontherelativebargainingpowerofeachparty.Wagesareinfact elastic,moving betweentwolevels that isanabsoluteminimumwherenohumanbeingwouldbeabletosurviveon,sayUS80amonthtodayandamaximumlevel, where i t wouldalmostendupthreateningthebossesprofits.Alivingwageissomewhereinbetweenthesetwo.

Toincreaseprofitsbossesalwayspushwagesdownasmuchaspossibleclosetotheabsoluteminimum.Forinstancetryingtoforceworkerstoacceptalowerstandardoflifethantheyhadgotusedto,likefamilieslivinginaoneroomorsurvivingononemealadayorindirectlythroughovertimeorincreasingproductivitythroughtechnology.Ontheotherhandworkersstrivetoarchiveatleastaminimumwage.Sothereisaconstantstrugglebetweenthetwo.Butthestruggleisnotafairone.theindividualworkerneedsajobtosurviveotherwises/hewillstarveorbecomedestitute.Alsoemployedworkersarealwaysincompetitionwiththeunemployedworkerswhoarereadytodothework

foralowerwage.

Workerscanonlyimprovetheirbargainingpowerbyformingtradeunionsandusingthemtoeffectorthreatenactionsthathurtthebosseswhereitpainsthemostiethepointofproduction.Thestateoftheeconomyalsomatters.Wheretheeconomyisgrowing,minimumpressureevenatcompanylevel,canpushwagesup,asunemploymentwouldbelowerandprofitshigher,whilstduringeconomiccrisis,bossesresistmuchandwillrequireharderpressure.Thuswhereworkershaveunited,democraticandmilitantunions,inwhichleadersareaccountabletotherankandfile,thegreatertheirabilitytogetwagescloserorevenabove the livingwage,evenin timesof economicturmoil.

Sojointheunionnowandbepartofagenerationfightingtoendstarvationwages.

ShingaMushandi Shinga!!!!ShingaMushandi Shinga!!!!ShingaMushandi Shinga!!!!ShingaMushandi Shinga!!!!ShingaMushandi Shinga!!!!

Wecontinuewithasimilardiscussioninthenextissue

..

ThefightforalivingwageThefightforalivingwageThefightforalivingwageThefightforalivingwageThefightforalivingwage

Medical Buzz Volume One of 2010 February

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Transcript of Medical Buzz Volume One of 2010 February