Moffat Chazingwa
15 July 2008
Ndola — Miners at Konkola Copper Mines (KCM)'s Nkana integrated business unit (IBU) in Kitwe yesterday downed tools to protest a 15 per cent salary increment reportedly awarded to them by management.
The workers downed tools after word went round that management had awarded them 15 per cent salary increase.
A Times of Zambia reporter, who went to the plant around 15:00 hours, found workers for both morning and afternoon shifts milling around the loading bay waiting to be addressed by their union officials.
The workers, who assembled at the loading bay at 10:00 hours, only dispersed around 16:00 hours after National Union of Miners and Allied Workers (NUMAW) branch officials addressed them.
NUMAW branch official, Angel Chibuye, who advised the workers to return home, refused to comment on the protest referring comments to the national leadership.
But workers talked to said they were protesting the 15 per cent salary increment.
The workers, who vowed to continue with the protest today, said it was mockery for management to award them 15 per cent because it did not translate to the amount of work they were doing.
NUMAW president, Mundia Sikufele, said by Press time that he could not comment because he had not yet received an official report from union branch officials.
KCM said in a statement that a small section of workers staged an illegal assembly in connection with the just concluded negotiations for a new collective agreement between the two unions and KCM management.
A spokesman for KCM said the assembly was staged even before the workers could be briefed by union representatives on the results of negotiations.
KCM, the Mineworkers Union of Zambia and NUMAW, recently concluded negotiations and had embarked on a series of meetings to brief members.
KCM said workers at Nkana, however, decided to protest even before hearing details of the concluded negotiations.
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